


Digital

by HOMRA



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Chatlogs, Depression, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Rating May Change, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Video Gamers, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-06 03:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 52,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5401502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HOMRA/pseuds/HOMRA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Fushimi Saruhiko leaves home for good he's positive nothing could improve his mood, or his life for that matter. Without a place to call his own, he settles in a nearby internet cafe, where he begins to wonder if he'll ever leave some sort of impression on the world. Somehow, he doubts it. However, a fellow gamer on his favorite website is about to change his perspective- and even change his outlook on life, giving him a chance at happiness, something he felt he never deserved.</p>
<p>Or Saruhiko and Yata meet via Jungle- a gaming and social media site- and develop an odd friendship that might just be everything they ever needed and more. Sarumi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Friend Request

**Author's Note:**

> What have I done? I really don't need to be starting a new fic but alas, I saw a drawing of these two idiots talking via a computer and this happened. Anyway, hello, welcome to what will be my first multi-chapter Sarumi fic. Gonna get a few things out of the way first, this is AU, if you didn't already know. In this Saruhiko never met Yata in middle school and continued to live at home throughout that time, so he's not going to be like he is in canon. He's gonna have the same mentality he had in the early part of LSW...but worse. So if he seems OOC, well, there's why. Got it? Cool. Moving on!
> 
> General warnings: This fic will be told from the viewpoint of a character that is suffering from depression and will being having 'questionable' thoughts. Consider that before you read this if that may be triggering for you.
> 
> With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the first installment! :)

The house he was reluctant to call home hadn't changed much over the years.

It was still dark and quiet, devoid of any family mementos and decorations, and the front door was always unlocked. No amount of time could change these things. Whereas people changed, objects could not unless someone willed them to, and that house- the one Fushimi Saruhiko finally decided to leave- was never going to change because no one but him wanted it to. 

Eighteen years of suffering in silence and growing up without a soul to call his friend or rely on had had some sort of impact on him, he supposed, as he stuffed what few belongings he had into a duffel bag. Because he was always alone he didn't have anything that meant much to him, nothing that would be missed if it wound up lost or stolen. In that sense he wasn't much different from what little possessions he had. He'd take what he needed and disappear without a word and no one would ever go and look for him. No one would miss him when he was gone, he had already been long since forgotten.

Some clothes, cash, and his laptop- that was all he took with him, not even bothering to take the house keys because he knew if he ever returned, that that door would still be wide open. Even then the house would be cold and quiet, and the driveway would be empty, too. For him, there was no one to return to. Just a building that had served as both his hell and his haven, depending on what day it was. 

It had been five weeks since he had seen his mother's uncaring face and even longer since he had seen his cruel fathers, though the last time he saw the latter had been when the cops drug him away on some kind of hit and run charges. In some sick way, that had been the best day of Saruhiko's bleak life. It had been a pleasure to watch the man who made his life a living hell have a taste of his own medicine. 

That man had destroyed everything he had ever created, rubbed it in his face until _his little monkey_ knew that the things he held dear and the things he took pride in were worth nothing. Not to Fushimi Niki, and to anyone. At age six, Saruhiko had a good grasp of that. At age seven, he stopped creating things he couldn't destroy himself. At age fifteen, it was himself that he had begun to destroy. Things hadn't changed much in the last three years. 

If he were to form a list of things he hated he would top every single one, followed only by vegetables and his father- who he really wished was killed in prison and burning up in hell- and he figured that maybe, just maybe, that would be the way things were meant to be. 

People were an anomaly in Saruhiko's mind. How others could spend their days parading around, performing work like robots and pretending to care about others, was beyond his level of comprehension- but then again, if he couldn't control it and calculate it in his mind then it was beyond his capacity. In terms of books and street smarts, he was a genius in every sense of the word. When it came to other people, he was at a complete and total loss. 

It wasn't like he had a lot of chances to improve his knowledge either. The only contact he had ever known had been either torment from his father, neglect from his mother, the nagging of his sitters and teachers, and the violence someone like him was introduced to by kids his age who couldn't see him as anything more than a freak. 

Despite his status as a genius, he had left school at age fourteen, and as if to agree with the sentiment that he was truly alone in the world, not a soul from the school system had even attempted to contact him or his parents. Or if they did, he wasn't aware of it. From that point onward he spent his days cooped up in a nearby internet cafe- where he was headed now- where he worked online and coded websites for a decent exchange of cash. 

It was easy work for him and the payout was good, good enough he could get some run of the mill apartment in a bad part of town if he wanted but he felt that would be useless. The only time he had returned home had been to sleep, and on the days when his father had been home, he hadn't ventured out at all- instead, he'd lock himself in his room and pray to no one in particular that that man didn't come knocking on his door. He always did.

Now, Saruhiko had no intention of returning to that place. That sterile house that had never really been a home and that had been the shelter for misery and suffering alike. If objects could miss people then he was sure it wouldn't care for his absence either. If he were to fall off of the earth or if he were to be dead and gone the planet would keep on moving forward like nothing ever happened. No one would remember the boy with glasses that hid behind a cold expression and never said a word to anyone. 

For that reason, a part of Saruhiko longed for death, as if that would be the only way to end his eternal pain and torment, but another part of himself- one that was much more prideful of things he didn't have and abilities he only wished he possessed- wouldn't allow himself to end his life. Not while he had nothing to show for his existence, not while the earth would keep turning and no one would ever know he existed. 

That was all he wanted, for someone to know that he was alive and that he was breathing. He didn't need that person to tell him he wasn't worthless- because he truly thought he was, he heard it so many times that he had begun to believe it himself- but for someone to know that he once walked on the same planet as them, breathed the same air, that was enough for him. 

So as he got to his favorite twenty four hour cafe and ordered a black coffee, from the same woman who served him every day he went there, he surveyed the crowd. Stashed away in a corner out of almost everyone's view, he watched people come and go for the next hour as he stared idly at the door, completely and totally out of it as he nursed his coffee and remembered small details of strangers who all seemed so much more alive than him.

He tried to find similarities in them, tried to find out if there was some sort of formula for happiness that maybe he hadn't noticed before, but as complicated as human emotions were of course there was no real way to adequately explain them. It was simple, in his mind anyway, that the world was happy and would continue to go onward and that he, who was trapped in his head and only felt alive when he was dreaming, was lonely and everything but nonexistent. 

As much as he longed for someone to look at him and not just see some sad boy with glasses, he felt himself cringe whenever someone locked eyes with him. It was a reflex, to hate and not trust those around him- to expect cruel words and pain from those who shared the same planet as him- and for some reason or another none of their attention was what he wanted. Those people probably saw a thousand faces a day, there was no way they'd remember his. That wasn't what he was after. 

After ordering another cup of coffee, he pulled his laptop out of his duffel bag and plugged the charger into the wall outlet, booting up the system as he pulled a small headset out of the front pocket of his bag. He quickly typed out the name of a social site he had discovered some odd years ago, an online community called Jungle that could be used for anything a person could ever need out of a social media site or game streaming software. It did it all. There was no simpler way to explain it.

As he logged on and clicked on a particular game, one with a rubix cube that had to be solved before the opponents, he quickly launched into the puzzle. Clearing the red side first before working on the blue and then the green, his opponent was yet to solve one side of his or her puzzle by the time he was on the fourth. In only seventeen seconds he completed his, successfully defeating his opponent- who surprised him by purposing a rematch. 

He rolled his eyes as he accepted the request, wondering briefly if the other person saw what rank he was in the game. Out of all the players on Jungle, numbers well into the millions, he was number six on the site's top player list. If he put any effort into it he'd certainly be first, but alas, this was merely his means of escaping reality- nothing more, nothing less. 

Red side finished, four seconds.

All sides completed, fifteen seconds. 

Again, another rematch. 

_If you want to so easily give me your points then fine,_ he thought to himself as he continued to accept match after match. Even when the game closed he'd get a notification, another invite from the other person, asking to play him again. When he bested his personal record, and the games as well, of finishing the puzzle in six seconds flat on a particularly lucky scramble, he got a message notification in the bottom of his screen.

**Yatagarasu: Okay, maybe challenging you wasn't such a good idea! You're really good! How do you do it? :O**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: It's called practice.**

**Yatagarasu: It's called you're just super talented, man. Mind if I send you a friend invite? It's kinda cool, knowing I’m playing against and talking to one of Jungle's best players. You're a bit of a celebrity on here! ^^;**

**Yatagarasu would like to be your friend!**

_Didn't even wait for an answer,_ Saruhiko thought to himself as he hovered his cursor over the decline button, letting out a sigh as he switched it to accept and clicked it.

**Yatagarasu is now your friend!**

**Yatagarasu: Sweet! Hey wait, it says you don't have any other friends on here? What gives? Is that a glitch or something?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: No.**

**Yatagarasu: So...you've never added anyone else before?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Again, no.**

**Yatagarasu: Okay, now I feel like I really am special, getting to talk to you of all people and being your friend on here, too. This is awesome. Thanks for accepting. :D**

Before he could even type out a response the chat bubble moved again, indicating that the other user was writing something else. He let out a deep breath as he reached for his coffee, wondering why this conversation felt any different than the others ones he had had on Jungle in the past. He had talked to the other top players and was in their _circle_ but he had always declined friend requests, he liked to keep his profile clean and devoid of pointless things. That, and it was also set on private. Meaning the few photos he did have posted would become available the moment he accepted any requests.

If he was honest, the only reason he accepted this one was because the guy didn't outright demand it or beg him for it. Just asked and sent it, which was different than the others. The emotional gap he had from leaving everything else behind earlier in the night filled a little as he continued to watch the text bubble bounce around, knowing a message was coming and that for some reason or another, this pointless conversation and the guy's blatant enthusiasm at being able to talk to him, made a part of Saruhiko feel alive. 

This was the kind of attention he wanted. Not some fleeting recognition in the eyes of a person who would forget his face the moment they turned away. This person knew who he was, had probably heard horrible things on the boards about his personality and way of shutting others out and even destroying their accounts if they wouldn't leave him alone, and yet he persisted. 

He could only wonder how long that would keep up for. At some point or another he was sure this person would only disappear and forget he existed, too. That was something he felt he would have to keep reminding himself of.

**Yatagarasu: Sorry if this seems kinda weird or whatever, but I’m super bored and you honestly seem like the coolest person on this site so would you maybe mind talking with me for a bit? The other players are all the same, they brag about accomplishments they don't even have and you're kind of a mystery. I mean, yeah, I’ve heard you don't really like talking to people and I'm sure you have a thousand other things you could be doing but I figured it was worth a shot.**

**Yatagarasu: I really like Jungle, but I’m a bit new to the site, I’ve only been playing for a year and there's still a lot about it I don't know but I'd really like to learn. So maybe if I gave you some of my points would you help me move up a bit and teach me some stuff about it? Don't ask me why, but after I heard about you I just knew I had to seek you out. I can't believe you actually replied and accepted my requests! I always knew the top players were really cool, despite what others might say, and this really proved those other people wrong. You made my day, thanks man. :D**

Saruhiko re-read the passage several times, not at all understanding the words the first time around and the second time he was only more confused. _Why is this person freaking out over something like this? It's just a stupid game and a stupid website...why do they think this is so important?_ But against every part of his mind that made him want to shut the computer and ignore the other person's message, and despite the fact that he was confused over the persons interest in him, he chose to type out a reply.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Thanks...I guess. I’m not really doing anything so we can talk if you want, and don't worry about the points. I can give you a few pointers and then it's just up to you to practice or whatnot.**

With bated breath and an eagerness he didn't know he possessed, he waited for a reply.

**Yatagarasu: Really? Oh man, you're seriously the best! Your profile photo is kinda bad ass by the way, are you good at throwing knives? :O**

Saruhiko cursed as he remembered that particular photo but he chose to ignore his embarrassment for the time being and instead hovered his mouse over the other user's profile. After pulling it up in a new tab he scrolled down until he got to the user's photo and about me section. 

**Name: Yata  
Age: 19  
Location: Shizume Town, Tokyo, Japan  
Occupation: …still working on that one!  
Hobbies: Skateboarding, listening to music, and running.  
Jungle Rank: N  
Player Rank: 12,098,376  
Friends: 139**

The person in the photo was a bright eyed man with a wide smile on his lips, sporting rather shaggy reddish brown hair, and a pair of white colored headphones that hung from his neck. All in all, he looked like a lot of people their age, though this man- Yata- looked like he was still a bit scrawny and had some more growing to do. Unlike Saruhiko, who figured he was done with that stage in his life. As he scrolled through the photos- an action he would later question as to why he did it- another notification popped up on his screen.

**Yatagarasu: Wait, you live in Shizume too? O.o**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Oh, yeah. I guess.... Yeah, I live in Shizume.**

**Yatagarasu: I'm gonna take that “I guess” as a “hell yeah, I’m really good at throwing knives” because you probably are. With my luck I'd kill someone or even myself if I tried. XD That's awesome! I had no idea all the top players were from Tokyo, I knew the others lived here but I didn't know you lived here, too. Oh, by the way, do you have a mic? I was gonna see if you wanted to talk, it might be easier! ^^;**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Yeah, I have a mic.**

**Yatagarasu: So...can we chat or what? XD**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I guess we can.**

**Yatagarasu is calling! Do you want to answer?**

With a bit of reluctance Saruhiko hit accept and waited, sliding his headset on as he plugged the cord into the jack on the side of his laptop. It wasn't the first time he had ever spoken with other players but it had been quite awhile. The last time he had done that had been when the site's creator, a man named Hisui Nagare, invited the top ten to chat about the new leveling system that saw them jump from J-Rank, what had been the highest, to the status of Kings. 

The top ten list were the Kings of the game, many of which dominated one aspect of the site and held the highest scores for that certain section. Saruhiko's area had always been the problem solving games and games that required brain power to complete. To name a few others the sites fourth highest player had a fascination for the games that involved puzzles, and the man who held the number three position had a love for the first person shooters and violent games that were streamed. 

Saruhiko hadn't been kidding when he said that Jungle was a site for anything and everything. 

After the call audio had connected he slunk back further into his corner of the internet cafe, eyes darting to the windows on the other side of the room, a study pour of rain pounded the pavement outside and the glass that separated the room from the elements. In a way, he felt such weather was fitting for the type of day he was having. 

“Hello?”

Stirring from his thoughts, Saruhiko adjusted the microphone on the headset and turned the volume up, eyes raking over the other player's profile as he returned the greeting, albeit a bit quietly.

“Sorry in advance if the call quality is a bit shitty, it's pouring on my side of town.”

He snorted, “it's raining here, too.”

“I'm definitely glad it's already eight and I don't have to leave my house, no way would I want to go outside in this.” The man on the other end of the phone laughed, a sound sickly sweet to Saruhiko's ears. “Anyway, I should probably properly introduce myself, I’m Yata Misaki. But please only call me Yata!” There was a muffled sound on the other side of the line that sounded a lot like _”I can't believe I said that.”_

“Misaki?” Saruhiko mumbled, partially in need of clarification and well, to be completely honest, he found it a bit humorous. _What mother hates her son so much that she gives him a girls name?_ As soon as that thought crossed his mind he remembered how he got his own name and instantly felt his stomach churn. _Okay...well my father hated me enough to name me something like Saruhiko...I suppose we have something in common._

“Please don't call me that,” the other man growled though the noise came out with a hint of laughter in it. “Anyway, is your name your screen name or what?”

“Yeah, it's Fushimi Saruhiko.” He confirmed.

“So, Saruhiko then? Well it's nice to unofficially meet you,” there was a brief pause, in which the other person coughed awkwardly. “Sorry, I’m kinda bad at talking to new people.”

“Then why did you want to talk?” Saruhiko deadpanned as he clicked on Jungle's home page, watching the leader boards shuffle for a moment before they settled again. 

**KINGS OF THE JUNGLE!**

**1\. Hisui Nagare- Creator of Jungle  
2\. Sukuna Gojou- 2,458,900 Jungle Points  
3\. Suoh Mikoto- 2,375,089 Jungle Points  
4\. Munakata Reisi- 2,298,071 Jungle Points  
5\. Iwafune Tenkei- 2,160,693 Jungle Points  
6\. Fushimi Saruhiko- 2,145,896 Jungle Points  
7\. Mishakuji Yukari- 2,120,749 Jungle Points  
8\. Douhan Hirasaka- 1,985,521 Jungle Points  
9\. Adolf K. Weismann- 1,967,432 Jungle Points  
10\. Kotosaka- Gate Keeper (If you want to make the list, you have to go through him first! Only nine players have beaten him since Jungle launched. Think you have what it takes? Have 1.5 million Jungle Points or more? Here's an** ** FAQ** **on how to challenge Kotosaka in an all or nothing battle for either the status of a King or all of your points!)**

Saruhiko cringed as he remembered how annoying beating Kotosaka- who was nothing more than an animated parrot that had the answers to all of the games and would solve each in twenty seconds if the player didn't beat them to the punch- was. Needless to say it had been easy for him to beat the list's permanent gate keeper, but he hadn't exactly been prepared to lose all of his points either. 

“Well...I don't know if I’m honest, I was just really bored and I kinda wanted to talk to the guy who beat the crap out of me at the cube game.” Yata chuckled, not even that could mask the embarrassment that clearly leaked into his voice. “It's kind of amazing how good you are, you're kind of amazing, I mean.”

“Thanks,” Saruhiko mumbled quietly into the mic, not doting on the praise at all but finding it a bit uplifting. Out of habit he made a grab for his coffee, frowning when the liquid turned out to be nothing more than cold. Cold coffee was another thing he couldn't stand.

“Hey Saruhiko? How did you get that many Jungle points by the way?”

“I've been playing since the site launched,” he answered as he tapped on the lid of the coffee cup, longing to get up and get it refilled but being stopped by the cord that connected his headset to the computer. 

“Were you one of the beta testers?”

“No, although a few others on the top ten list were.”

“So you're really going to help me get better, right? That wasn't just a mean trick?”

“No, I’ll help you, I guess.” Saruhiko replied as he tilted his head back, eyes raking over the ceiling as he focused all of his attention on the discussion he was having. He hated the way it made him feel invisible, he hadn't realized just how long it had been since he had had a conversation with another person. Now that he thought about it, it had been over a month since he had communicated with anyone- other than the woman he bought his coffee from. 

That clearly wasn't healthy, but he supposed it was no worse than the other things he did- or rather didn't do.

“You know what I think this is, Saruhiko?” Yata said gleefully, and as Saruhiko glanced down at the computer screen and clicked on the other man's profile he could swear he could see the other man's smile from across the line.

“What?” 

“The start of a beautiful friendship, what do ya say?”

_Friendship._

He had never had a friend before, he wasn't sure how that sort of thing was supposed to work. He wanted to say no and hang up, wanted to block the other man and log off for the day and sulk in the corner of his favorite cafe but something inside him stirred, something inside of his mind told him to reach out and take that offer. And even though it terrified him- the mere thought of getting close to someone and then being forgotten again- he knew that a chance like this may never come again. 

If he died right now the world would keep turning and nothing would change at all. Not for anyone. This offer, this invitation of companionship- despite the fact it was nothing more than a voice behind a microphone at the time- was too tempting to pass up. 

“Friendship, huh?”

“Yep, I can tell you and I are going to get along really well already. You've got to be the coolest guy I know, and the fact you're willing to help someone like me...well...that's a big deal for me. I don't really have a lot of friends or anything and I don't talk to a lot of people but that's because I don't really have anything in common with most people. Ya know? For some reason, and I’m sorry if this is weird, but you just seem interesting to me, Saruhiko. I want to get to know you.”

_He wants to get to know me?_

“So...what do you say?”

_More like what else could I say...._

“Sure.”

“You mean it?” There was a loud cheer on the other line, quickly followed my a mumbled apology. “Awesome, well hey, I have to log off for a bit so I can eat dinner. If you're still on later do you wanna talk again?”

“Sure,” Saruhiko repeated as he stared at his computer screen, studying Yata's profile with inquisitive eyes as he gathered every piece of info in his mind and tried his best to remember it. In case that this too was fleeting, though he'd never own up to that.

“All right, well I'll talk to you later, Saruhiko!”

“Yeah, talk to you later.”

When the line clicked dead, he briefly wondered if he'd actually ever hear from the other man again but something told him- something he had no reason to believe but couldn't stop himself from doing so- that Yata would definitely call back. For some reason or another he wasn't like the other people Saruhiko had met, he didn't just see a sad boy that hid behind an emotionless mask. He saw Saruhiko. 

Without even knowing it, his lips twitched upwards into a small smile.

**Yatagarasu is now your friend!**

“Friend...huh?”


	2. Glass Houses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one of this story, told from Yata's perspective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing onward with the theme that these two never met each other, Yata never met any of Homura and had his own problems to work through. If you've read LSW then the things mentioned here should seem familiar. Again, because of this, he will not be like he is in canon but I will be putting my own spin on what would happen if he hadn't had Saruhiko there during that time. 
> 
> The warnings for the previous chapter still apply here as well.

A lot of things changed over the course of ones lifetime, and Yata Misaki wasn't an exception to that.

His childhood started out the same way most people's did. He was brought into a home with a caring mother- one who took care of him and taught him everything he ever needed to know- and to a father- one who was absent a lot due to work but provided for them nonetheless. He was rambunctious when he was young, so full of energy that even sleeping had been hard for him. He always wanted to be on the move, always wanted to discover and explore new things and meet new people. In the beginning, Yata Misaki had lived a very normal and quiet life. 

When he turned six, things began to change around him. 

His parents came to an agreement that they would go their separate ways and the day his father packed his bags and loaded up his car with his belongings was the last time Yata ever saw that man. When he had been younger, he would anxiously wait for his father to return home from his business trips and he would cling to him when he finally got home. His father had always been tired but still he had persisted, until the point that his father would ask his mother to take him to bed because he needed space. 

In Yata's eyes, that was all his father ever seemed to have. He was never home and when he was he wanted to be alone. When that man never came back it wasn't much of a surprise but it wounded him all the same. 

His mother changed at some point after that, found a new husband within a year and was pregnant with a boy that would be followed by a baby girl a few years later. At that time, Yata began to watch his crumbled world reform- but while it re-sculpted itself he found that he was no longer a part of it. He was a bystander, on the outside looking in as he watched his siblings grow and watched his mother become too engrossed in her new family to remember that he still needed her around. 

His family was one of those who seemed to live in a glass house but only he could see in and they could not see out. Around that time, he began to change himself. Pursuing things he found fun and not caring enough to heed the warning signs that came along with it. He became so focused on making himself happy, by surrounding himself by people- people who he tried to lump together into his own family of sorts- that he didn't even realize that those people secretly did nothing more than despise him.

He tried to be the hero but found himself playing the villain.

It started out simply enough, he made an account on the newest hit media website, Jungle, when he was twelve and discovered a chat log between the group he had so proudly called his friends. The things they said about him pushed something in him over the edge and he sought them out to confront them. It was then that he realized that he could not force people to like him, and that while he had thought that he was a popular person that he was really nothing more than the most hated guy in his grade. 

Yata stopped trying to surround himself with people and forgot all about Jungle- even blamed that website for the pain he was forced to endure. He became an outcast quickly, but unlike the stereotype, he still tried to reach out to people. He still tried to become somebody in the eyes of everyone. But within the year he had lost all hope of that and had become long since forgotten by his peers and family alike. 

At age fourteen, after spending so much time in solitude and faking happiness, he decided not to go to high school. 

His mother had been incredibly disappointed and warned him that he would become a nobody, a delinquent if that continued, but he didn't listen to her. He got a part time job working at a restaurant and began to save up his own money, and when that became a decent amount he packed his belongings into a few suitcases and confronted his mother and her husband, telling them he was leaving and that he was going to make something of himself one way or another. 

_Not working at a ramen shop with no education you won't,_ she had so coldly said. With an undignified smile and with tears in his eyes he had not even waved them goodbye as he dragged his bags out of the house, disappearing without a word into the night. He hadn't spoken to her since. 

He found a run down apartment in Shizume Town with the help of his one and only friend, Kamamoto Rikio- whom he had known since early childhood and only recently reconnected with- and together they could afford to live and live relatively comfortably. Their schedules were conflicting to say the least and even though they lived together they never really saw one another. Those three years spent like that were lonely and cold, but Yata worked diligently- desperate to prove his mother wrong. Desperate to be able to say that he was not a nobody who would do nothing great with his life.

At seventeen, Kamamoto had said that he was going to move out and get his own place if Yata could afford to live on his own. He knew that he couldn't but he had agreed, wishing his only friend the best of luck and asking that they kept in touch- which they did. As a result, he worked much more than anyone his age should ever have to but in comparison to everything else that seemed unimportant to him. He woke up alone, feigned politeness and confidence when working, and came home to an empty apartment where he would then fall asleep and repeat the cycle.

At some point, his family stopped trying to contact him or send him invitations to holiday parties or birthday events. The holidays were days Yata hated the most, days in which he'd do nothing but sleep or play video games to try and forget the raw stinging in his eyes and the heaviness in his chest. 

Loneliness was a disease, one of which he had contracted and fallen victim to. However, he held out hope that one day he would become a man that he and his mother could be proud of. A man his father would want to reconnect with, a man that didn't have to work over fifty hours a week just to make ends meat. Through it all, he refused to give up but could only wonder how long it would be before the world that had lost all hope in him crushed what hope he clung to. 

His life was routine and robotic, and most days he was so lost in his own head that he didn't recall getting out of bed or even working a ten hour shift. He would only come alive when he was engrossed in video games or attempting to talk to people on Jungle-a website in which he had gradually forgiven and became fond of- but he longed for so much more. He wanted someone to want him around and want his company and he was sure that person existed, and for that reason he refused to give up all hope. 

Even though everyone and everything had given up on him, he refused to go down without a fight. He would not spend the rest of his life like this, of that much he was certain. 

For a year his life went on like this until one fateful day where he showed up at his place of work and found a notice on the door. 

**Permanently closed, sorry for the short notice.**

His bosses phone was disconnected and the other employees were as clueless as he, in only three weeks he would be on the streets if he didn't find more work but he remained optimistic. He had enough food to last him and had enough cash just in case he didn't but his rent was already overdue and he doubted his landlord would continue to be so forgiving but still he applied for every job opening in town, hoping that he'd get a call back.

But even if he didn't he supposed that would be okay, too.

He wouldn't call and ask his mother for help nor would he tell his one true friend that he was on the streets and left to his own devices but he figured that he would find some way to pursue happiness again and pull himself up when he had been kicked down. He was not fearless but he did have a certain amount of control over his fear, in this moment he was so engrossed in a delusion that he was not about to lose everything he had worked for and instead believed it would work out in the end. 

If something happened and all life ceased to exist on Earth then he wouldn't mind, but if life continued onward and he was forgotten and abandoned along the way then he didn't mind that too much either. Somewhere along the way he had gone from hopeful to hopeless and he was so ensnared by fantasy that he refused to accept that he had wasted the last few years of his life and that now he would have nothing to show for it. 

Instead of facing that reality, he logged onto Jungle and skimmed through the message boards. Many of the topics were about new games coming out or guides on how to get better at certain games but there were also several gossip boards he checked. He refused to admit that he did this to see if anyone was saying hurtful things about him but in the darkest corners of his mind he knew it was true. He had never conquered his fear of rejection. 

As he pulled up the board he scrolled down for a bit, looking for any mentions of his username but alas, the board was devoid of it. Instead the conversation was about the websites top ten list and what people knew about them. Someone had complied a short bio of each of them and posted what photos they had found as well, the user also offered some advice on how to beat each one of them and what their skills were. Yata found it interesting so he enlarged the post and began to read about them, wondering how they were able to accomplish what so many others wanted but could not obtain. 

**Kings of the Jungle Breakdown and Analysis:  
(Everything you need to know about the Kings of the game, all in one place!)**

**Hisui Nagare: The mighty creator of Jungle who can best any puzzle or games score whenever he is challenged. Pretty simply put, don't mess with him! You will get banned or you will get wrecked. Nagare is...(see more)**

**Sukuna Gojou: Youngest of the King class players, but also the second highest scoring player on Jungle. Sukuna has been active on Jungle for only two years but has managed to climb the boards very quickly. At age...(see more)**

**Suoh Mikoto: A twenty four year old firefighter out of Shizume Town who's area of expertise is first person shooters. He is the third highest rated player and was an original beta tester of Jungle before it launched. He is...(see more)**

**Munakata Reisi: A police captain out of Tokyo who dominates any game that involves critical thinking or puzzles. He is Jungle's fourth highest ranking player and was beta tester before the site launched. Muna...(see more)**

**Iwafune Tenkei: A 42 year old man who's current occupation is unknown, he is the King of guessing games and may or may not have real life ties to the creator of Jungle, Hisui Nagare. Because of that, don't mess with the guy either. Iwa...(see more)**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: An eighteen year old guy who is quite possibly the biggest asshole on the planet but to some he's the coolest King of the bunch, though. Depends on who you ask. (I personally dig the guy.) He will wipe the floor with you and if you bother him he will delete your account...(see more)**

Surprised by the sudden change of tune, Yata clicked expand and opened up the full page. 

**Fushimi Saruhiko: An eighteen year old guy who is quite possibly the biggest asshole on the planet but to some he's the coolest King of the bunch, though. Depends on who you ask. (I personally dig the guy.) He will wipe the floor with you and if you bother him he will delete your account and rob your points, if don't mess with him wasn't clear enough with the other two then REALLY don't mess with this guy. He, like Nagare, will completely banish your existence on this site if you get on his bad side. Talk about computer skills.**

**Not too much is really known about Fushimi Saruhiko. He's boss at problem solving games and the games that require coding. It's been rumored that he even beat Hisui Nagare on one occasion, though neither have commented on that.**

**What we do know about Fushimi Saruhiko:**

**-His skill level at problem solving and coding is unparalleled.  
-His account has been active for four and a half years (as of when I'm writing this), or since Jungle launched.  
-He was not a beta tester.  
-He has the ability to take down and destroy accounts.  
-He doesn't like to be messed with, period.  
-Challenging him at what he's best at is suicide.**

**Jungle's official readings on Fushimi Saruhiko (out of 10 points):**

**Intelligence: 10/10  
Skill: 10/10  
Communication: 1/10  
Threat Level: 10/10  
Coding: 9/10  
Total Wins: 256,895  
Total Losses: 4 (each of which were to other King Status Players, even before he was a King himself.)  
Overall Ranking: 6th**

**There are no pictures of Fushimi Saruhiko available.**

**Because of his swiftness and risk level I'm going to advise you to NOT challenge this player unless you are a J-Rank or obtain the King status for yourself. Even high ranking players should be cautioned when challenging Fushimi Saruhiko.**

**There are no known guides on this player's method of playing therefore we could not compile a guide on how to defeat him. Pretty basically, try to avoid engaging him at all costs, and if you do challenge him do not put up a lot of points, it will be easy for him to take everything you have.**

**Do not attempt to contact this player, he doesn't play well with others!**

**If you have any information on this player please contact me.**

**This concludes our report of Fushimi Saruhiko.**

_Is this guy really that secretive?_ Yata thought as he exited out of the tab, going back to Jungle's homepage, where he quickly typed out the name on the report. 

**Fushimi Saruhiko is online! *Warning: This player is a King.***

As he clicked on the users profile he frowned when he realized it was set to private. If Yata was honest, he'd say he had done some digging on the Kings when he first started playing and had even talked to one of them, Suoh Mikoto, briefly when he gave Yata some rather vague tips on how to eliminate a boss on a certain round of a shooter game but that was about as far as that went. He added him and moved on. 

It was an odd fascination but it did something to preoccupy his time and take his mind off of things. Fushimi Saruhiko was a bit of an anomaly as far as Jungle users went in general, no one knew anything about him and he didn't seem keen on opening up his information to anyone. The only thing that seemed certain about Fushimi Saruhiko was the fact that basically everything people did know was based on speculation or opinions, minus what he was known to be good at.

Yata felt like it was a bit unfair to him. He had seen people say some rather horrible things about the King level player in the past and he honestly felt that no one, especially not someone who wasn't around to defend themselves, should be subjected to that. It reminded him a lot of the day when he found out about his so called friend's secret chat group.

For all he knew, Fushimi Saruhiko didn't care what people had to say about him or maybe he got a kick out of it; but from personal experience it bothered Yata to the point where he would even stick up for the guy- someone he didn't even know. He got a lot of shit for it but still, he remained adamant that smack talking someone behind their back- whether you know them or not- was wrong and unjustifiable.

If he was in the other person's position he would hope someone would do that for him, too.

**Fushimi Saruhiko is about to play J-Cube, would you like to challenge him?**

Yata watched the scrolling text over the private profile with a perplexed expression before he moved his mouse over and hovered over **yes**. With a bit of reluctance, he clicked it.

**How many Jungle Points would you like to bet?**

**Select One: 10, 15, 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000**

After selecting ten and submitting his offer he waited for an answer- which popped up almost immediately after.

**Fushimi Saruhiko has agreed to your offer! Good luck, player!**

_Yeah I'm gonna need it,_ he mused as he watched the game load on his screen, once completed a green parrot- one that represented Jungle and was also known as the list's gate keeper- appeared in the center of the screen. After a few caws, counting down from three to one, the game began. Yata paled as he stared at the cube in front of him. 

“Shit,” he cursed as he attempted to slide a few pieces together. On the other side of his screen the cube the King rank player was working on was nearing completion. By the time he got one side cleared a flashing banner came across his screen.

**You lose! Would you like to play again?**

_Yes._

**Fushimi Saruhiko has agreed to your offer! Good luck, player!**

And on and on it seemed to go, after losing well over two hundred points he knew he shouldn't continue but he caved in and clicked onto the new game request one last time. When it loaded he didn't launch into his work but instead focused on the other player's, watching with wide eyes as the cube quickly rotated before the banner popped back up. 

**NEW GAME RECORD!**

“He beat J-cube in six seconds...” he mumbled to himself out of disbelief. The previous record had been held by the same player but had been a bit higher at 9.3 seconds, this, Yata felt, was absolutely astounding. “He's incredible.”

Yata clicked on the other man's profile again, dragging his cursor over the few options that were available before he hovered over the message option. The guide he had recently read replayed in his head as he contemplated his action.

_**Do not attempt to contact this player, he doesn't play well with others!** _

Yata sent him a message anyway.

**Yatagarasu: Okay, maybe challenging you wasn't such a good idea! You're really good! How do you do it? :O**

He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in as he waited a little less than patiently for a response- if he'd ever get any. The message popped up as read almost immediately, which he supposed made sense since practically no one in their right mind would want to try and communicate with the guy who had destroyed so many users in the past but Yata felt differently about it. He didn't see him as the person everyone else did.

Instead he thought about all the things he had seen on the forums about him, all the nasty things and rumors that he had even tried to have taken down. On the off chance that maybe those things really did bother this Fushimi Saruhiko, then he didn't want to be one of the people who participated in it.

He knew what it was like to be degraded by your peers, it wasn't a good feeling. Even if it didn't bother the other user he would have done it anyway because it bothered him. Yata didn't know what it was but the air of mystery surrounding Jungle's number six player was beyond intriguing to him. It was a real life mystery, not one made up of a wall of code- though that is what the other man hid behind. Because of that, and because of his own selfish desires to forget what else was going on in his own life, Yata wanted to become one of the few- if not the only one- who knew about Fushimi Saruhiko. Not because he wanted to share that knowledge with others but because he felt as if they could relate to one another, as if they already had something in common and again, this was the part of Yata that still longed to reach out for someone. 

Rumors were nothing more than that, they didn't tell the whole story and that was something else Yata liked to have. If there was some sort of justification in the posts he had seen about Fushimi Saruhiko being an arrogant jerk then he would admit he was wrong and move on. But because of the chance, however small that it may be, that he, like Yata was back in middle school, was really just lonely and being pushed away by others then he felt as if he should be the one to extend his hand out and offer friendship.

The real reason behind it wasn't just that, though. He felt some sort of strange pull towards the other gamer, wondered how it was even possible for someone to be so good at something that they could crush records left and right and have so much to show for it. To him, the Kings of Jungle weren't nobodies like he was. They were people who were important and had done something incredible, even if it was just online.  
Even this man, the one who people said was terrible and hated everyone and everything, was someone incredible to Yata and even though the reply was brief and meaningless, the first contact with the man behind the name became mesmerizing for him.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: It's called practice.**

Yata couldn't help but chuckle at the bluntness of that answer. While he typed out his response he moved his cursor over another option on Fushimi's profile. _Well this is called I think you're interesting and I want to know more about you._

**Yatagarasu: It's called you're just super talented, man. Mind if I send you a friend invite? It's kinda cool, knowing I’m playing against and talking to one of Jungle's best players. You're a bit of a celebrity on here! ^^;**

**Friend Request sent!**

To his surprise, the response was almost immediate.

**Fushimi Saruhiko is now your friend!**

_See? They're wrong about you, you're not unwilling to talk to people..._ he thought as the other user's profile reloaded, finally bringing up his entire profile and not just half of it. 

**Name: Fushimi Saruhiko  
Age: 18  
Location: Shizume Town, Tokyo, Japan  
Occupation: Website Designer   
Hobbies: Coding and reading.  
Jungle Rank: King  
Player Rank: 6  
Friends: 1**

_No way...he doesn't have any friends on here at all?_ Yata couldn't help but frown as he stared back at that number. Sure, he had quite a few on there but it was mainly just people he played certain games with, a battle team of sorts. They didn't talk in the real world at all but the fact that Fushimi, a player who had been active for four years and was one of the most talked about, didn't have a single friend...it bothered him, to say the least. _You and I already seem to be a lot alike...._

Something about that thought stirred something in his mind, made him question what his eyes were seeing. 

**Yatagarasu: Sweet! Hey wait, it says you don't have any other friends on here? What gives? Is that a glitch or something?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: No.**

**Yatagarasu: So...you've never added anyone else before?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Again, no.**

**Yatagarasu: Okay, now I feel like I really am special, getting to talk to you of all people and being your friend on here, too. This is awesome. Thanks for accepting. :D**

And he meant that. The more and more they talked the more he found himself wanting to know more, Saruhiko's answers were swift and precise- almost calculated- but it always felt like there was something else that could be said. For that reason, Yata extended another offer to him- one in which he was surprised was so quickly accepted. 

His nerves were frayed by the time he found his headset and plugged it in, when the call actually went through he all but choked out a greeting, something that was quietly returned to him. Rain pounded down onto the side of his apartment, hitting glass and brick and forcing him to realize that again, he had been stuck inside his computer for the better part of the day and hadn't even realized that the weather had changed or that the sky had grown dark. 

Saruhiko's voice was quiet and he didn't say much, but because of that it only intrigued Yata further. Every time he had the chance to talk to a high ranking player he was excited, but this time it was a bit different. This was the first person he had met in a really long time, if ever, that he felt automatically drawn to. As if they were cut from the same cloth even though he didn't really know anything about Saruhiko.   
Without even thinking, and with a really hopeful tone of voice, Yata found himself doing something he rarely did anymore out of fear of rejection. He offered up his friendship, hoping that the other gamer took it and didn't become another thing in Yata's life that was set out against him. In a time where he was losing everything else, the conversation he was having now gave him clarity. Kept him grounded to reality and it had only been a few minutes since they had started speaking. 

Yata cursed under his breath when the other man paused, but when he finally got a faint, _”friendship, huh?”_ he reminded himself, like he did so often, to have faith.

“Yep, I can tell you and I are going to get along really well already. You've got to be the coolest guy I know, and the fact you're willing to help someone like me...well...that's a big deal for me. I don't really have a lot of friends or anything and I don't talk to a lot of people but that's because I don't really have anything in common with most people. Ya know? For some reason, and I’m sorry if this is weird, but you just seem interesting to me, Saruhiko. I want to get to know you.” 

He barely had time to register what he was saying before the words flew off his lips, all he knew was that it was the truth and he left it at that. Trying to explain that he wanted to know the person behind the name because he wanted to know that there was someone out there who might just be in the same situation as Yata himself seemed to heavy to throw onto someone he had only just met. He had been good at scaring people off in the past, he didn't want this to be like all of those other times. 

He just wanted someone he could talk to and openly with, why he wanted that person to be Fushimi Saruhiko he wasn't sure. He didn't question his gut instinct, only rolled with it and let it control what he said at the time because in truth he wanted to get to know Saruhiko. He wanted to become friends with him- someone else in this world who might have been misunderstood and belittled for who he was. Saruhiko was someone he could already relate to and he wanted to convey that but still, it went unsaid.

Saruhiko was interesting without even trying. In less than an hour he had manged to completely capture and demand Yata's attention with his skill, and surprise him with how kind he seemed to be. Knowing what little he knew now he was glad he stuck up for Saruhiko in the past, back when he had never even spoken to him, not because he would want someone to do it for him but because he truly felt as if the man on the other end of the line was someone like him. 

He sounded sad, as if there was something heavy on his mind and through that voice and the few photos he had available- which Yata would later admit were quite attractive, for some reason or another- there was more than sadness in his eyes. They looked devoid of anything, hollow, cold. Despite everything Yata went through he clung to hope and he felt that showed in his own, however, there was nothing in Saruhiko's eyes that even hinted that he had any hope...or that he felt anything at all. 

It sent chills down his spine the more he looked at it.

Yata had never seen such a look and as startling as it was, to see someone who was very much alive look so dead, it made him sad too, knowing that something had happened in Saruhiko's life that had been so horrible that he had lost a part of himself. Yata didn't know if he wanted to know what it would take to completely banish the light from someone's eyes. Whatever it was, he imagined it was probably painful and far worse than anything he could think of.

The thought made him sick to his stomach- which oddly enough had begun to growl, as if to remind him he hadn't eaten since early morning yesterday. After another small exchange he finally got the answer he had been hoping for.

“Sure.”

“You mean it?” He replied with a brilliant smile, though the other person could not see it. _A friend...you don't know how much that means to me already._

To break up the moment, his stomach continued to pester him to the point where he finally caved into it's rumbling, telling Saruhiko he had to log off and eat something- for the first time in over thirty seven hours if he was counting correctly, he had lost track of time and hadn't even slept- but that he would call him back if he was online.

“All right! Well, I’ll talk to you later, Saruhiko!”

“Yeah, talk to you later.”

There it was again, that sadness and doubt that Yata thought he had heard earlier, the one that made him want to never hang up the phone and continue to talk...but the line cut dead before he had the chance to say anything else. With a heavy sigh, he pushed himself off of the couch and put his laptop to the side, approaching the blinds- that had been closed since he lost his job- and he slid them open, gazing down at Shizume Town with a bittersweet expression. 

“I guess I'm not the only one who has it rough,” he said to no one in particular as he turned away from the window, listening to the quiet sounds of the rain as he glanced back over at his laptop. “I will call you back, Saruhiko....”

With a frown and glassy expression he forced himself to walk into the kitchen and pull food out of the freezer before he tossed it in the microwave. It occurred to him that he didn't even know what day it was anymore, only that it was eight o'clock and it was dark and raining and that he- who had no one he could really turn to- had found some sort of bleak light in an otherwise dismal world. He couldn't help but snort.

_It's been so long since I've talked to anyone...I've even been ignoring Kamamoto and I’m sure I'm running out of time here as well...._ The tears that had been building up for so long finally fell down his cheeks, his exhaustion preventing him from even attempting to fight them off. _What am I gonna do? I'm gonna lose everything...why am I still running away from that?_

And because of his denial, Yata couldn't even see that his eyes- that had once been vibrant and bright- had begun to dull, too.


	3. Encounters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, thank you all for the comments and kudos. I appreciate the support on this. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Saruhiko would never describe himself as talkative, however, Yata seemed to be really good at getting him to start up on something and after that he found it a bit hard to stop.

When Yata had actually called him back he had been too shocked to do anything and had almost missed the call, managing to catch it on what he assumed was the last ring, as he fumbled with his headset and rambled off a small greeting. For whatever reason, Yata had laughed about it and said it sounded like he had run a marathon to get to the computer and he had snorted awkwardly, not disagreeing because explaining himself would only be that much more complicated.

It was weird to him, how much Yata wanted to know about him that was. He wanted to know what Saruhiko liked and what he didn't, what his interests were and what his dream for the future was. It wasn't stupid small talk but rather it was talk of how much they seemed to have in common though they were so different it wasn't even funny. 

Yata was loud and loved to talk and laugh and make jokes about things and Saruhiko was reserved and quiet, he felt they truly were an odd mix but somehow that seemed to work for them. When he had finally convinced Yata to get some sleep it was then that he realized how long they had really been talking for. 

**Call Ended. Call Duration: 3 hours, 27 minutes**

Saruhiko had a hard time believing his eyes when he had seen that and caught a glimpse of the time. He couldn't recall a moment in which time seemed to go by that quickly. Those three and a half hours had been precious to him, though he had been the listener more often than the talker- not like he minded- he found that Yata was someone unlike the other people he had spoken with in the past. 

Sure, he was a bit dense and kind of nagged Saruhiko whenever he wouldn't answer a question but it was an innocent action that was stemmed from curiosity, not out of a need to have something to use against him- or so he hoped. He had been a bit vague with most of his answers, declining to answer what he planned to do with his life or where his general whereabouts were, just in case. 

After all of that he still had his doubts about the whole thing. Despite the fact Yata had promised to message him as soon as he woke up he couldn't get his hopes up.

_I'll believe it when I see it._

Yata called him back the next day like clockwork, and every day after that, too.

On day four of knowing each other- and a six hour phone conversation with Yata later- Saruhiko fell asleep. Waking up only when there was a light tap on his shoulder and a face of another person came into view- the woman who he bought coffee from almost every day. As he leaned up to look at her she offered him a cup, filled to the brim with the very substance he so heavily relied on. He refused to be embarrassed by the fact she had so clearly caught on to him- or so it seemed.

“Do you mind if I sit with you for a moment?” She asked as he took the cup with a small bow of his head, mumbling words of appreciation under his breath.

“I suppose not,” he answered coolly, shuffling his laptop to the other side of the table before he placed his coffee cup in front of him, wrapping his hands around it in an attempt to stir some sort of reaction from his half asleep mind. 

“Thank you,” the woman said with a sigh as she took a seat directly across from him, offering him a small smile when their eyes locked. “My name is Awashima Seri, I’m the owner of this establishment.”

“Owner, huh? Explains why you never take a day off,” he acknowledged as he nodded his head slowly. “I'm...Fushimi Saruhiko.”

“Well, it's nice to finally be on a first name basis with you, Fushimi-kun.”

“Something tells me that's not the real reason you sat down here.”

“Not at all,” Seri deadpanned as she clasped her hands together. “I...I notice you come here a lot and don't leave very often. Last night you didn't even leave at all...actually...you haven't left here in a few days.”

“I won't do it again,” Saruhiko offered as he felt an uncomfortable tension build around them.

“It's not that...I just wanted to ask if something was troubling you.” Seri sighed as she watched Saruhiko's face fall, “forgive me for being so invasive. This cafe is always open and only closes on holidays, you're one of my most loyal customers and you're welcome to stay around as long as you'd like.”

“I'm fine,” Saruhiko answered as he brought the cup of coffee up to his lips, taking a long swig of the dark liquid. “I just have a lot of work to do and I don't have wifi at home.”

While it wasn't necessarily a lie- considering he had no home and therefore had no way of having wifi- he felt a tad bit guilty over it. However, the last thing he wanted was to be forced into talking about why he chose to stay at the cafe the past few nights. He made a mental note that he'd have to go to another later in the day and rest there, if he could alternate then he figured he wouldn't have to deal with people's questions. 

“I see,” Seri mused as she stood up from her spot, “that cup is on me, if you need anything else please feel free to ask.”

Saruhiko silently nodded his head as she walked away and back towards the front part of the cafe, it was only after she was out of view that he gathered his laptop up and placed it directly in front of him. He had another website to launch by the end of the week and he was getting a pretty penny for it, he figured it would be best to go ahead and get a head start. After two hours of nothing but writing out code, he heard the now all too familiar **ding** that indicated he had a message. He quickly switched the tab on the browser and pulled up Jungle's homepage.

**Yatagarasu: Morning, Saruhiko! ^^**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Good morning.**

**Yatagarasu: Did you sleep well?**

Saruhiko grimaced at the question, if his sore muscles and stiff neck were anything to judge his quality of sleep on then no, he definitely did not sleep well.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Yeah, and you?**

**Yatagarasu: Eh, kind of. I had weird dreams all night. XD**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Oh?**

**Yatagarasu: Yeah...but they were just stupid dreams, nothing worth writing about! ^^; Anyway, what are you up to?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I'm working on a website. What are you doing?**

**Yatagarasu: Trying to avoid responsibility and find an excuse to stay in all day, to be honest. Hahaha.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: If you have things you need to do then you should do them.**

**Yatagarasu: Easier said than done, I'm afraid! Plus, I have an excuse to stay in now! :D**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: What's that?**

**Yatagarasu: You're online, I can just talk to you today, right?**

Saruhiko's eyes widened slightly but he quickly shook it away, clicking his tongue at Yata's message. _So irresponsible._

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I'm trying to work, if you have to get something done then don't make excuses not to do it. We've talked nonstop for the past few days, I’m sure you have other things you need to do.**

**Yatagarasu: Yeah...but what if I would rather spend my day talking to you, Saruhiko?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: You're so annoying...**

**Yatagarasu: But in a good way, right?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Yeah, in a good way.**

**Yatagarasu: So...you should totally use Jungle's team viewer and let me watch you work, I'm bored and we could always use the headset to talk...hehe.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: You want to watch me...code a website?**

**Yatagarasu: That's what I’m saying, isn't it? :P**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: ...fine.**

**Yatagarasu: SWEET! :D**

**Yatagarasu is calling! Would you like to answer?  
**

After quickly sliding on his headset he accepted the call, pulling up the tab for the team viewer that would then connect Yata's laptop to his, rendering his computer useless but allowing him to see what Saruhiko was doing. It was a brave thing to ask, Saruhiko thought, considering Yata very likely knew how he was renowned for hacking into other peoples computers to begin with, but he had to admire the way the other gamer didn't seem intimidated in the slightest.

“Hey, Saruhiko!” 

Said man made a mental note to turn his laptop volume down before he ever accepted another call from Yata, how anyone could be that loud- especially at nine in the morning- was beyond him.

“Hey,” he replied as he finally finished setting up the viewer, he then pulled up what he was working on before his fingers started flying over the keys again. 

“Should I just be quiet and let you work?”

“You can talk, just keep it brief.”

“Sure,” Yata laughed before he made a noise of amazement. “Wow, you're so cool, Saruhiko! How are you doing this that fast?”

“It's called p-”

“Practice, right?” 

Saruhiko couldn't help but snort, “yeah, practice.”

“Speaking of practice, I’m going to practice J-cube later tonight. Maybe I'll get good enough to beat you one day.”

“Don't get your hopes up,” Saruhiko snickered as he neared completion on the section he was working on. 

“Hey Saruhiko, speaking of how good you are with computers and stuff...do you think you could teach me how to code?”

“Why would you want to learn something like that?”

“Well to be honest with you...I'm kind of in a jam right now and I’m out of work. I don't really have any special skills or anything so finding a job is a bit hard...” Yata's voice level went down drastically, something that made a frown pull on Saruhiko's lips.

“How much of a bind are you in?”

“Well...uhm...it's getting pretty bad, I guess. I’m running out of money and my rent was due five weeks ago. Sorry, I know that's a lot to spring onto you but yeah...I'm kind of worried that I'll lose my house.”

“Why don't you just move back home?”

“Home? Tch, what home? I don't have anything to return to,” Yata laughed bitterly.

“Coding takes a lot of patience and time to learn, even if I could teach you how to do it would take us awhile.” Saruhiko said with a sigh. A part of him couldn't help but feel bad for Yata, despite the fact he had his own things to worry about. If he wanted, he could have his own place because he had a skill that was in high demand. Yata, however, apparently didn't even have something that made him a desirable job candidate. Saruhiko didn't want to imagine what that must have felt like.

“Oh, I see. Well thanks anyway, Saruhiko! I'm sure I’ll figure something out, I just have to stay positive.”

_Positive? How could you stay positive if you don't even know if you'll be able to keep your home?_

“The coffee shop across from the Shizume Station is hiring,” he said dully as he stared at the back of the **Help Wanted** sign out of the coffee shop window. “They're always short staffed because the shop never closes, if you have any experience you'd probably get hired.”

“Really?!” Yata all but screeched at him, causing Saruhiko to wince and continue to turn down the volume on the headset. “I live pretty close to that, like a block away. I’ll go apply later today. You're the best, Saruhiko!

_Why did I tell him that?_ he thought as he paused his work, fingers hovering over the keys as he went eerily silent. _Guess I can't come back here after all._

But that was bit problematic in itself, this was only one of three 24 hour cafes and if he was to keep rotating between them that would be a bit harder if he could only go to two locations. Still, he supposed it was something he could get away with and it wasn't like he wanted the other person to be on the street and in the same position as he was. Besides himself, he didn't think anyone deserved that.

“Why don't you just go now?” He offered as he began to stuff his belonging into his duffel bag, “better to get there before someone else gets the position.”

“But I want to talk to you,” Yata countered, and again, Saruhiko swore he could hear the smile in his voice. 

“Well I’ll be online all day anyway, if you go now then you can just call me when you get back.”

“Fine fine, promise you'll answer?

“I promise,” he mumbled into the mic as he unplugged his laptop and bundled the cord in his hand, pausing only when the laptop was the last thing he had yet to place in his bag.

“Well I’ll call you and tell you how it goes, thanks again, man. If I get this job I’ll owe you my life.”

“Don't mention it.”

“I'll talk to you in a bit...get some rest, Saruhiko. You sound exhausted.”

“Yeah...maybe. Good luck.”

**Call Ended. Call Duration: 15 Minutes 33 Seconds**

With a heavy sigh, he closed the laptop and shoved it in his bag. As he approached the door that served as the exit to the cafe he paused, turning back around in time to see Seri shoot him a curious look. With a click of his tongue and nothing short of reluctance, he approached her.

“You said to let you know if I needed something, right?”

“Yes, what can I do for you?”

“Within the hour, I presume, a guy named Yata Misaki will come in here and apply for a job. He seems like a hard worker but he's out of work and is about to lose his apartment...if you need help so badly you should hire him. It would save you both some trouble.” He mumbled as he adjusted the sling on his duffel bag, Seri shot him a curious look.

“I think you might have misinterpreted my offer, I meant if you needed more coffee or food then to ask.”

“Well you weren't specific enough and you said _anything_ ,” he countered with a bland expression, one of which seemed to surprise the cafe owner- who maybe even looked a little impressed.

“Fair enough,” Seri mused with a small sigh. “If he qualifies then I will give him a shot. It's pretty kind of you to help someone in their time of need and put their needs above your own.”

“I don't need work, and besides, it's not something heroic like that.” Saruhiko clarified as he turned away from her, pausing only when he heard a sharp call of his name. He looked back at her.

“Your friend...I'm sure he'll thank you for this.”

“Something like that...I’m not interested in,” he mumbled, registering the shock on her face as he exited the building with no intentions of returning. As he walked away from the building, he dug into his pocket for his spare PDA- which was more like a modified super computer- freezing in his place when the object he was looking for was not in it's usual place. After checking his other pocket and going as far as to look into his duffel bag, he let out an irritated sigh. “Guess I left it at that place....”

_Guess I’ll have to go get it...I hope that woman isn't home._.

0o0o0o

Upon arrival to the sterile building he had vowed so stupidly to never go into again, he froze in the doorway. Double checking that there were no cars in the driveway before he placed a hand on the doorknob and gave it a swift turn- as expected, it opened without any effort. The house was silent and cold, the only light that came into it filtered in between the blinds and even then the house was dark. 

He walked through it with ease, hurrying his pace when he got to the stairs- that he climbed two at a time- until he reached the third floor and his bedroom. _Guess I could take a few more things while I’m here,_ he thought as he flipped the lights on and sat his bag down on the foot of his bed. After finding his old school backpack, he filled it to the brim with clothes and quickly grabbed his PDA and it's charger, stuffing it into the bag as well. 

At some point during this process his eyes began to grow heavy and he swore he could hear his bed calling to him, but initially he refused to give into temptation and only continued to pack his things. After a few more minutes, in which he almost dozed off when he took a seat in his old desk chair, he finally caved in and crawled into the bed. _No one's here...it's fine if I sleep for just a little bit....after this, I’ll never come here again,_ he mused as he set his glasses aside and brought the covers over his chest. Almost instantly falling into a deep sleep. 

When he woke up, there were two things he noticed before anything else. One, it was absolutely freezing- to the point that he was sure he'd get sick by the time tomorrow rolled around, not like he cared- and two, that he was not alone in the room any longer. As he felt around for his glasses a hand came out and stopped him, freezing him in his tracks as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Even though his vision was slightly blurry, he could make out that person's frame and he knew that person's touch. It was something he thought he would never see or feel again.

“What's up, my little Monkey? Where have you been? I came home two days ago and you weren't here.”

“None of your business,” he hissed as he yanked his hand away, finally finding his glasses and sliding them onto his face. The cold expression that stared back at him sent chills down his spine. 

“Anything that involves you is my business,” Niki clarified with a bitter laugh as he patted his son on the hair roughly. “Be a good boy and tell me where the hell you think you're going.”

“Go to hell, how did you get out of jail to begin with?” Saruhiko huffed as he scampered backwards in his bed, stopping only when his back hit the headboard. Niki smiled at him as he reached over and turned the lamp on, basking the room in artificial light.

“They falsely accused me and dropped all the charges, think I’m even gonna stay here for awhile, in this house. Your mother's not gonna be back for awhile anyway, you and I could spend a lot of time together.” 

“Get out of my room,” Saruhiko hissed as he attempted to swing his legs off of the other side of the bed, another hand reached out and caught his shoulder. 

“Your room? You don't pay for this house, nothing here is yours!” Niki cackled as his grip tightened, hard enough to cause Saruhiko to grimace. “Now, tell me where you're going.”

“Away from here, away from you,” Saruhiko spat as he reached up and attempted to pry those less than pliant fingers off of him. Niki's grip only strengthened. 

“I'm surprised your mother hasn't kicked you out yet, you're not a little kid anymore. Either she's forgotten about you or she feels sorry for you,” Niki chuckled as he pushed downward on his son's shoulder. Saruhiko didn't even attempt to stay seated at this point, only fell back to the mattress with a blank stare on his face. “C'mon my little Monkey, we can spend so much father and son time together.”

“Not interested,” Saruhiko mumbled as he felt around on his bed for his bags, hoping that he could grab them and make a run for it the moment his father let his guard down. Suddenly, his PDA rang. 

“Oh? Is someone calling you, Monkey? Go ahead, answer it! I bet it's just a telephone marketer!” 

“Shut up,” Saruhiko growled as he dug the PDA out of his pocket. An animated parrot danced on his screen, **Jungle: Incoming Call from Yatagarasu! Would you like to answer?** Before he could hit decline his phone was swiped from his hands, and with a wicked flail of his arms he tried to recover the device. The only thing he was successful in doing, however, was slamming his elbow into Niki's face. The ringing became an after thought, even when the PDA fell back into his lap and he grabbed it with his hands. The silence in that moment became deafening and time itself seemed to slow.

“You did not just hit me...you little shit,” Niki laughed as he clutched onto his so obviously broken nose. “You're dead, you're so dead.”

Feeling a new spark of adrenaline, Saruhiko freed his leg from the confinement of the cover and managed to bring it close to his chest. With every ounce of energy he had he kicked forward, sending his foot square into Niki's hand- which then collided with his face. Scrambling, Saruhiko shoved his PDA in his pocket and grabbed the straps on both of his bags, dashing to the door and putting as much distance between the cackling madman and his house as he could.

He didn't stop running until he was several blocks away and sure he was home free. He put his hands on his knees to brace himself, dropping his bags at his feet as he tried to catch his breath. The adrenaline was yet to wear off and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride- knowing that he had finally had the nerve to retaliate against his father, even though it had been unintentional at first. A small triumphant smile formed on his lips.

**Ring...ring...ring....**

_Shit, Yata._

Scrambling with his PDA, and still trying to regain his composure, he quickly answered the phone.

“H-hello?” He breathed out, wheezing slightly when the cold night air hit his raw throat.

“Hey...you okay? You sound like you just ran a marathon!”

“Something like that, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Good...uhm...about today Saruhiko...sorry I called you so much, I just wanted to thank you.” Yata's tone of voice was soft, a kindness that Saruhiko had never heard directed at him before. His already rapidly beating heart continued to increase it's rate.

“What do you mean?”

“You told that owner lady to hire me...and she did...she said I was more than qualified. Fuck, just...thank you, Saruhiko. I owe you.”

“Nonsense, it wasn't a big deal.”

“To me it was...but...why did you leave if you knew I was going to be there? She said after you said that you picked up your bags and left.”

Saruhiko paled in realization. 

“It's not like I was running away or something like that, I just had somewhere to be.”

“She said you stayed there a lot, is that true?”

“Sometimes.”

“Well...does that mean I'll see you around one day?”

_Shit._

“Probably not,” he whispered into the receiver as he looked up at the sky, as if to spite him a drop of rain fell onto the tip of his nose, followed by another drop and another. Cursing, he grabbed his bags and rushed in the only direction he knew to go. Back towards that cafe, seeing as it was the only place he could work in peace. He couldn't exactly walk fifteen minutes to the other one in the rain, not while he had his laptop and PDA with him anyway.

“Oh...well...okay, I guess.”

Saruhiko hated the tone of sadness in his voice and cursed himself for his own selfishness and poor attitude.

“Well...I have to go. Uhm, you can call me later if you want.”

“Yata...”

“Later, Saruhiko...thanks, again.”

**Click-**

“Shit,” he scowled as he finally got the cafe. Going inside was a stupid idea but it was already getting late, how he had slept so much earlier in the day was beyond him bus alas, he had spent eleven hours asleep and had a grand total of six missed calls from Yata. 

_He probably thinks I'm avoiding him,_ he realized as he stared at the neon cafe sign, _not answering his calls then refusing to ever see him.... But why is he trying so hard to be a part of my life anyway?_

As he stepped into the threshold of the cafe a rush of warm air hit him, something that caused him to shiver involuntarily to counteract the cold rain that clung to his clothes and skin. He hadn't even realized he had stood outside the door for what had to have been at least five minutes, doing nothing but staring at the sign and getting pelted with rain. He tossed his bags onto his usual table and quickly examined the contents, feeling more than relieved when everything that was electronic was still dry. 

“Thank you for the opportunity, Awashima-san. I promise I won't let you down!”

Saruhiko froze in his spot.

“Ah, of course. I will see you first thing Monday, Yata-kun.”

“You bet, have a good night.”

“You as well.”

As soon as the conversation was over, Saruhiko peaked his head around the corner, eyes widening slightly when the person who held such a familiar voice came into view. 

_It's really you...._

Yata wasn't facing him, but rather had his PDA in his hands and was paying attention to that. Saruhiko took that as an opportunity to study him. He looked just like he did in the photos he had online, except now he was wearing some black skinny jeans and a black and white plaid shirt, topped off with a pair of a pair of red sneakers. His hair was down and a chestnut color that had a red sheen to it, while it was a bit wild in the back, two pieces that were longer than the others framed his face around his bangs. 

Despite the fact that it was at an angle, his facial features looked a bit softer than most guy's their age. His eyes were bigger, his nose a bit smaller, lips a bit more defined...and to go against everything that Saruhiko ever thought about other human beings- and how much he claimed to dislike them- he was the most beautiful person Saruhiko had ever seen. 

The stereotypical reaction of only gasping slightly and staring ahead blankly was all Saruhiko felt capable of in that moment. His breath hitched in his throat. _So you...you were really who you said you were this whole time...and I...._ Getting an idea, Saruhiko pulled his PDA out of his pocket and turned the sound off before he pulled up Jungle's app and clicked on his messages. 

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Sorry about that...I didn't mean it how it sounded. I'm just a busy person...that's all. It's not like I'd purposely avoid you.**

He waited, watched like some sort of creep- which he assumed he looked like to anyone else who was in the cafe- as Yata mumbled the words to himself before smiling brilliantly. That reaction caused his own heart to hammer in his chest.

**Yatagarasu: Well that's a relief, I thought I did something to make you mad at me or something. Sorry I had to get off the phone so fast, that Seri lady or whatnot wanted me to go ahead and get some training done so I’ve been doing that all day and she was trying to talk to me. That's why I hung up. ^^;**

_I guess that makes sense,_ he thought to himself as he glanced back up and made sure Yata wasn't looking before he typed out his reply.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Well I hope it works out for you...I'm glad you got the job.**

**Yatagarasu: It's all thanks to you. :)**

Saruhiko peaked his around the corner one last time, catching sight of Yata's radiant smile again before the other man got to his feet and headed out the door. As he passed the glass window, Saruhiko watched him closely until he was out of sight. Only then did he type out a reply.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I'm glad I could help...**

**Yatagarasu: Did you have a good day today? :D**

And despite everything that happened in that day- despite dealing with nosy cafe owners and his idiot father- seeing Yata's face and knowing that he was a real person- not just some fake account, which he had already presumed he wasn't- made it all worth it. Being able to see him in person, though he didn't get seen back- mostly due to his own nervous actions- had been enough for him to call the day _good_ in his book. For the first time in a long time, Saruhiko smiled an honest to god's smile.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Perfect, today was perfect.**


	4. First Met You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, wow, thank you to everyone who left me comments on the last chapter! I was so shocked that it got that many and I'm really glad you all enjoyed it that much. ^^; I'll reply to them all as soon as I'm home for the day. Have a fluffy chapter (with an unexpected event) to kind of take away from the sadness we've been exposed to. 
> 
> Also, we will be gradually introducing some background characters so have a bit of their backstory. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this. ;D

“I met someone interesting the other day,” Yata confessed as he stretched out on his bed, laying his PDA on his chest as he stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom. On the other side of the line, Kamamoto urged him to go on. “He's incredible, man. He's a genius actually, one of those people who's smart without any effort...and for some reason or another, he and I have become friends.”

“I'm glad you've finally gotten a bit more social, Yata-san. I’ve been really worried about you,” at this confession, Yata's face scrunched up.

“Yeah, I know. Sorry I didn't call you for so long...I kinda lost track of time after the shop closed.”

“We all have moments like that, where it seems like nothing is going to go right but you just have to remember to keep fighting, man. You know I’m here for you if you ever need anything.”

“I know, you're the best, Kamamoto.” Yata smiled as he glanced over and checked the time on his alarm clock, “shit, it's late. I bet your girl is wondering where you're at.”

“Oh, she's fine. She's watching something on the TV anyway, but you sound really tired. You should get some rest, I know I’m not there to remind you not to neglect your health but you've gotta try to remember that comes first, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Yata yawned as he picked up his PDA. “I promise we'll get together soon, let me get this figured out first but once I’m working again I won't be as bad off, I promise.”

“Well,” Kamamoto began, his voice sounding a bit more concerned than usual which made a part of Yata feel even more guilty. “Try to call me at least once a week and let me know you're alive, Yata-san. I was about to come check on you if you didn't answer tonight, we haven't talked in two weeks.”

“I'm sorry, it won't happen again, okay?”

“Okay, well get some sleep. Good luck with the job search.”

“Thanks, talk to you later.”

With a sigh, Yata locked his PDA and laid it down next to him, curling up in a ball as he reached over and shut the lamp off beside his table. He felt a bit relieved- having talked to Kamamoto after so long, even though he neglected to tell him that he was at risk of losing his home- and to top the evening off, he had spoken to Saruhiko for a grand total of six hours. In which he supposed he did more talking than anything but Saruhiko didn't seem to mind at all, in fact, he was a great listener.

He was the first person besides Kamamoto that hadn't downright insulted him for how loud and well...annoying he could be. Sure, he made the occasional comment about it but he'd be quick to insinuate that he didn't mind it, and for some reason or another that had become almost a compliment coming from Saruhiko. A compliment Yata was glad to receive. As starstruck as he was with Jungle's number six player, he also found something enthralling about him.

He wasn't exactly what one could consider a people person and yeah, he had his flaws like everyone did, but none of that seemed relevant in comparison to all the great things Saruhiko did or the things he was capable of. Enamored was the proper word for it, Yata thought as a small smile graced his lips. Yeah, he was completely enamored by Saruhiko.

“This is silly,” he mumbled to himself as he brought his knees to his chest, the smile refused to fade away from his face. “Why is it so hard to stop thinking about you?”

_Is it because you pulled me out of my head? Or because someone like you would wanna be friends with someone like me?_ As Yata finally closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep, one more thought coursed through his head. _Whatever it is...I'm so glad I met you._

0o0o0

“Yata Misaki, huh? I've been expecting you, please, have a seat.” The woman- who introduced herself as Awashima Seri- said as she waved at a booth a bit out of the other patron's way. Yata did as told, shooting her a confused expression once both of them were seated.

“You've been expecting me?”

“Yes, a guy named Fushimi Saruhiko told me you'd be coming in today and applying for a job. Is he a friend of yours?”

_Saruhiko did what?_ he wanted to ask but wound up biting his tongue, only nodding his head slowly to answer her question.

“He also said you were a hard worker and that you were in a bit of a tight situation. Do you have any previous experience in food service?”

_Saruhiko...._

“Uhm yeah, I worked at a ramen shop for five years,” Yata said quietly as he glanced down at his hands. “It's the one that closed not too far from here.”

“The one that the owner left and didn't even bother telling his employees, right? I heard about that, I'm sorry you were put through that.” Seri exclaimed with a sigh as she slipped a piece of paper and pen towards him, “fill this out and we'll see what you can do today. If you do well during training then the position is yours.”

“Really?” Yata asked a bit quickly, blushing in embarrassment before he turned away from her again. “Thank you...I promise I’ll do my best.”

“That's all I ask,” Seri exclaimed with a warm smile as she rose from her chair, “my office is right passed the main bar area. Just walk on back and it's the first door on the right, it has my name on it.”

“Thanks,” Yata reiterated as he quickly got to filling out the application, taking his time and making sure he wrote the information in decent enough hand writing so it wouldn't be illegible. Before he started to go back, he pulled his PDA out of his pocket and opened the Jungle app, hitting call over Saruhiko's ID. _Can I ever thank you enough for this?_

“This user is currently unavailable, try back later,” came the automated reply- something he frowned at. _Guess I'll have to wait until later..._ he mused as he stood up from his seat, grabbing the pen and application before he did as instructed and dropped them off in Seri's office. She handed him a black apron before she pulled out a name tag, giving it to him along with a silver sharpie- in which he again, wrote his name as nicely as he could. 

“You'll be training with me today, is that all right?” She asked as she spun around in her office chair, Yata nodded his head. “First up on the docket is lunch, are you hungry?”

“Starved, actually,” he laughed awkwardly as he clutched the apron and name tag to his chest, offering her a smile as she rose to her feet. He glanced around the office, noting how it was immaculately clean and how there were only a select few personal belongings. One of which caused him to pull a face, it was a photo, nothing particularly unusual, but who was in it was what caught his attention. “You know Suoh Mikoto?”

“Oh, Suoh? Yes, he's my fiances' friend.” Seri exclaimed with a hint of surprise as she grabbed hold of the picture, offering it to him so he could examine it. “You know him as well?”

“Kinda, not really. We've talked online a few times, that's all.”

“Jungle, I presume,” Seri laughed as he handed the photo back to her. “He plays those barbaric games every time he's back from the station or not sleeping- for once. He's going to give his daughter bad habits.”

“Daughter?” Yata gawked as he glanced back at the photo, from what he knew Suoh Mikoto wasn't still relatively young and for some reason- even though he didn't know him well- he just couldn't imagine him being the father of anyone.

“It's a sad story, he worked a fire in which a girl's parents were killed and she was severely traumatized after it. At some point he started visiting her in the hospital and she became so attached to him that she didn't want to leave his side, the girl's family didn't want to claim her so he took her in.” Seri answered as she brushed passed Yata, waving him after her as they left the office and went back around to the front. 

“That is sad,” Yata mumbled as he stood beside her awkwardly, watching her hit a few buttons on the POS system before she asked what he wanted- to his relief, the food was free for employees. “You know...Saruhiko is a top player on Jungle, too.”

“I thought his name sounded a bit familiar but I wasn't sure,” Seri said with a face of recognition as she handed him a cup of water and together they waited for their food to come up from the kitchen. “I don't play on Jungle but Izumo- my fiance- is trying to get me into it, he did tell me a bit about the system and the rankings, though. Word has it, according to Suoh- who really can't be taken seriously most of the time- that the top ranking players are about to be offered a lot of sponsorship opportunities.”

“That would be a good way to make money,” Yata laughed as he took his food from a man in the back and followed after his new boss. 

“Indeed, I imagine the pay would be quite handsome,” Seri concurred as they took a seat across from one another. “Small world, though. I don't suppose you know a Munakata Reisi, do you?”

“He's Jungle's number four,” Yata recalled as he picked up half of his sandwich, “he's apparently a genius.” 

_Wonder how he'd measure up to Saruhiko...._

“He's a brilliant man and the decorated captain of the Shizume Town police force,” Seri explained as she sipped on the soup she had ordered. “Which makes me wonder why he and Suoh Mikoto are...well....”

“Oh c'mon,” Yata laughed as he made a grab for his water, “you can't just start to say something then stop before you do. That's just evil.”

“Well it's really not my place to say anything,” Seri snorted slightly as she dumped a side of red bean paste into her soup- something that made Yata cringe. “They met through work, what with Suoh being the fire chief and him being the police captain, but they are totally opposite of each other...and yet they live together and are dating. Try to keep that to yourself, I imagine neither of them wants anyone on Jungle to know that.”

“People are weird,” Yata chuckled as he finished up with his meal, practically inhaling the last bit of his food, though he tried to eat it as politely as possible. “Saruhiko and I met on Jungle, it's truly a strange website...but I guess it's also a place you can be anyone you want to be or meet anyone you want to. In a weird way, I’m thankful for it.”

“Is that so?” Seri mused as she folded her napkin across her now empty bowl. “He seems like a nice man, he's bit quiet, though. Whether he's just shy or he's just introverted is anyone's guess but he seemed eager to help you out.”

“Did he?” Yata inquired as he checked his PDA, frowning when his call hadn't been returned. “Is there anything you can tell me about him?”

“Don't you know him?”

“Uhm...well...we've only really talked online, to be honest.” Yata said with a sigh, “I know he vouched for me and everything but I promise he wasn't lying, I really do work hard and I need this job.”

“I don't doubt that at all,” Seri smiled as she clasped her hands together. “Well, we really don't talk much but he comes in here almost every day like clockwork, he even sleeps here sometimes. Poor thing works himself to death, I'm afraid. He keeps to himself a lot as I said, but he has always been kind to my staff and I. He's been coming here for years, I’m surprised his parents didn't say something about it but alas, he is one of my best customers.”

“I see,” Yata mumbled to himself as his eyes locked onto hers, “well, hopefully he'll come by soon. I'd like to thank him for this...and again, thank you.”

“Don't even mention it,” Seri exclaimed as she stood up, picking up her tray. “Ready to get to work, Yata-kun?”

“Of course.”

0o0o0o0o

“Later...Saruhiko...thanks, again.”

Yata sighed bitterly as he stuffed his PDA in his pocket, looking back at his boss who was patiently waiting for him by the door of her office. It had been a long day, filled with learning how to make all the drinks and how to run the POS system and the very moment Yata had been waiting for all day- the chance to thank Saruhiko- didn't really go as planned. He was a bit disheartened by what Saruhiko had said so casually, that he doubted he'd come around anymore.

Immediately, Yata felt as if he had done something wrong and guilt and suspicion threatened to eat him alive because of it. He forced himself to put a smile on his face as he approached Seri, sliding his apron off as he hung it on a coat hanger beside her door, he followed her into her office afterward. Taking a seat on a chair opposite of her desk, he shot her a nervous look as she launched into his review.

“You're actually a quick learner, Yata-kun. Your customer service skills are great too, I must say I am impressed.”

“Thank you,” he smiled as he folded his hands in his lap, ignoring the fact his knees were bouncing nervously as her gaze shifted. 

“I'd like to offer you a full time position, since I know your current position and you do have a good work background I would like to also offer you a thousand yen an hour with a chance to advance in pay within the first six months based on your performance. If you wait on anyone dining you can also collect any tip money they may leave. Does that sound reasonable?”

“That sounds perfect,” Yata sighed out of a relief, automatically crunching numbers in his head. _At this rate, I might just be able to keep my apartment._

“Good, I’m glad. Thank you for all your hard work today, come back the first of the week at nine in the morning for your first shift, you'll be shadowing me again but once this week is over you will be on your own.” Seri exclaimed as he stood up from his chair, when he walked out of the office she followed after him. 

“Thank you for the opportunity, Awashima-san. I won't let you down!”

“Ah, of course. I will see you first thing Monday morning, Yata-kun.”

“You bet, have a good night.”

“You as well.”

As soon as he rounded the corner he took a seat at the same booth he had eaten lunch at, pulling his PDA out of his pocket with a small sigh. 

**You have no unread messages.**

_C'mon Saruhiko...are you really mad at me?_

As if to answer his thoughts, a notification showed up.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Sorry about that...I didn't mean it how it sounded. I'm just a busy person...that's all. It's not like I'd purposely avoid you.**

The next sigh that came out of Yata's mouth was out of relief, followed by a huge grin that only progressed when he typed out his message. The next he received made that smile go even wider.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Well I hope it works out for you...I'm glad you got the job.**

Settling on expressing his gratitude again, Yata locked the screen on his PDA and got up from his chair, heading out the door as he patiently waited for the the next message from his new found friend- turned hero. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off as he passed by the cafe, as if he was being watched or followed but he chalked that up to his exhaustion and didn't dwell on it. Only headed towards his house as quickly as possible.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I'm glad I could help...**

_Help? You did more than help! You've done so much for me already...I wish I had the guts to say that to you,_ he thought as he replied with a change of topic. Only asking if Saruhiko had a good day. To his surprise, the reply was immediate.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Perfect, today was perfect.**

He waited until he was in his apartment before he replied, kicking off his shoes at the door and collapsing onto his couch with his PDA still clutched tightly in his hands.

**Yatagarasu: I'm glad to hear it. :) What did you do today?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Worked, got a lot of sleep and saw something really interesting.**

**Yatagarasu: Oh? What'd you see? :O**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I'll tell you one day.**

**Yatagarasu: C'mon! You can't do that to me! T-T**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Be patient.**

**Yatagarasu: Fine fine...hey...Saru?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Yeah?**

**Yatagarasu: Would you talk to me until I fell asleep?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Don't I always?**

**Yatagarasu: Good point. ^^;**

**Fushimi Saruhiko is calling! Do you want to answer?**

“What a stupid thing to ask,” he laughed at the question as he quickly hit accept and held his PDA up to his ear. “Hey, Saru!”

“Hey, Misaki.”

“Don't call me that,” Yata whined as he sunk back further into his couch, “it's such an embarrassing name.”

“You called me Saru.”

“So?”

“That means monkey,” there was a brief pause on the other end of the line in which only a click of a tongue could be heard. “Something like that is even worse.”

“I think your name is cool, thank you, and I don't mean it like that! Saru is just a...uhm...nice name for you, too.” Yata hated the way his cheeks burned out of embarrassment and for a moment he was glad Saruhiko couldn't see him.

“Nice, huh? Well I like Misaki.”

“It's not that bad when you say it, I guess,” Yata mumbled, pinching his brow in frustration when his voice came out barely above a whisper. _Damn the double meaning of that, that's not what he meant...wait...why would I even think that?_ Recovering slightly, he coughed awkwardly before he asked a question. “Can I at least call you Saru then?”

“Only sometimes.”

“Then you can only call me Misaki sometimes, how's that?”

“Unfair.”

“Says you,” Yata laughed as he looked up at his ceiling. “So, Saru...what are you doing right now?”

“Talking to you.”

“That's not what I meant and you know it.”

“I'm drinking coffee and playing J-Cube. What are you doing?”

“Thinking,” Yata confessed as he closed his eyes, “my heads a bit of a mess right now.”

“What's going on?”

“I'm just a bit conflicted about something, to be honest.” Yata chuckled, he could hear Saruhiko mumble something but couldn't make it out. “So...uhm...is there anything I could do to repay you?”

“Repay me?” Saruhiko sounded genuinely surprised, “I don't need to be repaid.”

“But you've done so much for me,” Yata continued, finally feeling enough nerve to say the things he had been trying too earlier in the day. “You got me to leave my house, you've been there for me, you even got me a job and I can probably keep my house now. There's too much to thank you for but I want to give something back to you.”

“There is one thing you can do, I suppose.” 

“Anything.”

“It's going to sound stupid.”

“Nonsense, what is it?”

“Yata...can you promise me you'll never forget me?” Saruhiko's sudden change in tone made him nearly drop his phone, the words were laced thick with a sadness that he had not heard before. It was heavier than the glimmers of doubt he had heard before, it was so surprising to him that he honestly had a hard time believing it was Saruhiko who said it.

“I'll never forget you, Fushimi Saruhiko. But that's because I’m not going anywhere, I always want to be your friend,” Yata smiled sadly, _why would you even say that, Saruhiko?_

“T-thanks.”

“Don't even mention it, that's what friends are for.” Yata laughed awkwardly, trying to cover up the own sadness he felt at having heard that question. “Can I ask you something?”

“Mhm.”

“Sorry if this seems kinda fast considering we've only been friends for a few days but...uhm...can we hangout sometime, Saruhiko?”

“Like in person?”

“Yeah.”

There was a long pause.

“Maybe one day.”

“But what if I wanted to meet you tonight?” It came out before Yata could stop himself, though he immediately cursed himself for it. He could heard Saruhiko snort.

“Why tonight?”

“Because I wanna thank the guy who's been a hero to me, not just thank you on the phone.”

“I have to work later.”

“I'll be quiet, I’ll even buy you some food or something.”

“Misaki....”

“I shouldn't have asked,” Yata coughed awkwardly, face burning out of embarrassment further. 

“Your work.”

“Huh?”

“Meet me at your work in an hour.”

“You mean it?!” Yata happily proclaimed as he surged forward and off the couch, getting to his feet in record timing as he waited with bated breath for a response.

“Yeah, I mean it.”

“YES! This is gonna be awesome!”

“Please don't scream in my ear.”

“Sorry sorry, I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, I’m so excited!” Yata confessed as he rushed to his bedroom, grabbing his hair brush in the process as he approached his bedroom mirror.

“Good...I am, too.”

“Well I'll text you when I’m on my way, okay?”

“Yeah,” Saruhiko paused for a second, as if he was debating on what he was going to say next, in the end, he said nothing else.

“Bye for now,” Yata practically sang as he hung up from the call, making quick work of brushing his hair and checking himself over in the mirror. He thought he looked nice enough, it wasn't his usual choice of clothing so that was a plus in his mind. As he smoothed down a few stray hairs and pushed the longer pieces into place he froze, coming to an awful realization. _I'm like some girl getting ready for her first date._ His cheeks heated up to agree with him.

But that didn't seem to matter the more he thought about it. He was nervous because he liked Saruhiko and wanted him to like him too, that and he was nervous that he'd embarrass himself or something along those lines. It was perfectly normal. What was not normal, however, was the way his heart skipped a beat the closer and closer it got to the end of the hour. When he left his house, his heart rate only continued to hasten.

_What if he doesn't like me? What if he never wants to see me a-...stop it, Yata. Pull yourself together, you're gonna be fine and everything else is gonna be fine, too._

That became his mantra from the moment he stepped out of the door and messaged Saruhiko that he was leaving until the time he got to the Shizume Station and could see the cafe from across the street. His nerves were so frayed that he felt as if he was walking through a dense fog, his head barely above water as he struggled to keep his composure. When he walked in the cafe, that feeling magnified tenfold. A few of his new co-workers shot him confused glances- wondering why he was back- but he only politely waved before he surveyed the area. 

A few people were scattered throughout the lobby but none were the person he was looking for, which only increased his anxiety. He walked from one end of the cafe to the other, peaking his heard around corner after corner until he came to the conclusion that Saruhiko hadn't shown up yet. That was until he saw a laptop and a cup of coffee stashed away in the most secluded area of the cafe. 

_That's gotta be him,_ he thought as he put on a brave face and approached the table. As he got closer he felt a frown pull on his lips. Though the items were on the table whoever owned them was clearly not there. _Maybe he bailed or maybe he's hiding from you, or may-”_

“Misaki?”

Yata froze in his spot momentarily, cursing under his breath before he spun on his heels, his breath catching in his throat when he finally came face to face with the man behind the screen name. Saruhiko's hair was pushed up on one side, sticking out a few odd angles while the rest of it fell almost over his eye, and behind his glasses were two brightly colored blue orbs- ones that looked much more lively in person, Yata would admit. 

With a nervous shift of his eyes, he took in the dark colored coat Saruhiko was wearing and it's fur lined hood, eyes drifting further until as he studied the rest of his clothes until he rose them again, locking onto those oceanic orbs that seemed to light up whenever they met his own that were the color of amber. Yata felt his lips twitch up into a smile. 

“Saruhiko?”

“Yeah.”

And without thinking any further, Yata flung his arms around Saruhiko's neck, burying his face in his shoulder as he swallowed his minor embarrassment and instead focused on the feeling of Saruhiko's breath on his skin- and when he recovered from his slight shock, his arms that wrapped around Yata's waist tentatively. 

“T-thank you,” Yata whispered, voice stammering the words out as his cheeks continued to grow hotter and his heart started to beat unnaturally fast. “I'm so happy to see you.”

“I'm happy to see you, too.”

And it was in that moment, that was filled with so many unfamiliar emotions and feelings that Yata finally caved into the nagging in the back of his mind that he had suppressed since he first got a message from Saruhiko. 

“Can I tell you something?” Yata mumbled, still refusing to let go of the other man- though Saruhiko showed no signs of letting go either.

“Anything, yeah.”

“I think meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me, is that weird?”

“No, it's not weird.”

“I'm glad I met you, you've been such a saving grace.”

The slight laugh that met his ears was the best sound Yata had ever heard, what came after that, however, would soon replace that. 

“So have you.”

“You mean that?” Yata asked as he finally let go, sighing slightly when Saruhiko dropped his arms too. When they stood back and looked at each other Yata felt his knees go weak, the sly smile he got after that made his already acrobatic heart slam into his chest with new found vigor.

“Yeah...I mean that.”

_Remember when I said this was the start of a beautiful friendship? I meant that...but not even I could have expected that it...that this...would be this beautiful._

It was better than anything he could imagine and somehow, that was one possibility Yata didn't mind missing the first time around.


	5. Black and White

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh again thank you all so much for the comments/kudos/bookmarks! I am completely overwhelmed by how much people seem to enjoy this, especially since this is my first multi-chapter Sarumi fic. O.o I'm off to reply to your lovely comments now but I do hope you enjoy the next chapter!~
> 
> PS. This is heavily inspired by episode 12 of RoK and also Fushimi's thoughts in LSW.

He really hadn't wanted to give into Yata's seemingly random request but there was something about the pleading in that voice that left him unable to say no. It was a cruel thing, Saruhiko thought, he never had a hard time telling people no in the past but of course the one time he had really meant to say no he had instead agreed. His insecurities ran rampant the moment he hung up the phone, agreeing had been stupid on his part and he knew it- what was even worse was the fact that he hadn't had really time to shower, which he'd admit was kind of gross on his part. 

As soon as he hung up the phone he made a mad dash for the door, only barely giving himself enough time to gather his things before he rushed back to his old home, again. That was even more stupid on his part but he felt fresh out of options. No way in hell did he want the first time he saw Yata to be the last and if he looked like a dog that had been left out in the rain- luckily, the rain had stopped- then he was sure that would happen. 

No sooner than he had arrived, he made note of his father's unconscious silhouette on the living room couch- where he was snoring like a grizzly bear and surrounded by alcohol bottles. Figuring he was passed out with no way of waking up, he tip toed passed him and up the stairs, locking his bedroom door and having sense enough to barricade it in case of another mishap. 

He had fifty minutes left by the time he was done, forty by the time he was out of the shower, and thirty by the time he was done grabbing a coat he had forgotten and blow drying his hair. After styling it for once in his life, a small yet disappointed looking smile pressed on the corner of his lips. _Without even thinking of it I made my hair look like that man's,_ he mused as he adjusted his glasses and grabbed his bag again, this time making sure his knives were secured to his person just in case he ran into said offending figure. 

As he removed the dresser from the front of the door and slung his bag over his shoulder he couldn't help but find it ironic, that no matter how hard he tried to escape that house that he kept getting dragged back to it for one reason or another. It was a bad kind of irony that led him to believe that maybe he couldn't last a moment on his own without it but he refused to believe that he needed anything from his parents. Whether that be love or a roof over his head. Saruhiko didn't promise he wouldn't return there again because now he wasn't so sure he could manage to keep his word.

He made it back to the cafe with fifteen minutes to spare- in which he set up his laptop and ordered coffee before he rushed off to the bathroom to check himself over once again. He gave himself the saddest pep talk possible as he stared into the mirror, reassuring himself that if Yata broke his promise after this then there would surely be someone else to replace him. However, Saruhiko didn't really feel as if that was true. After all, he walked through life in the background, a character without a name in a world that was full of both protagonist and antagonists alike. He'd never fit into either of those molds.

If Yata backed out now he wondered if he could even blame him or if he'd think it was his fault, he didn't have to think about it for long though as the answer came to him. _Your fault, it would be your fault entirely._ If there was one thing he was certain of at this point then it was that and that alone. 

After seeing Yata earlier in the day he hadn't been prepared for the new feelings and thoughts that would come after it. He didn't understand it either, how everyone else in the world looked the same to him and fit into some sort of category that he could classify and listlessly observe with never having a full understanding of them but then, there was Yata. Yata seemed to be an anomaly, a defect to the standard human being and because of that and because of how much he stood out from the crowd, Saruhiko couldn't even begin to describe him.

Dull, boisterous, devoted, or downright annoying, humans came in all shapes, sizes and patterns...and then there was Yata who was some of those things and yet none of those things at all. 

With a deep breath, he checked his PDA. If his calculations were correct, Yata would be in the cafe by now...which was something he was still having a hard time dealing with emotionally. Regret pooled in his stomach when his hand turned the doorknob, however, as soon as he saw the back of Yata's shirt in the slightly crowded cafe that began to waiver- teetering between remorse and excitement. _Why couldn't I just tell you no?_

Tentatively, he called out his name.

“Misaki?”

He watched as said man tensed for a moment, his shoulders straightening out before he pivoted on his heel, his hair swayed slightly as he turned, revealing a set of eyes that were brighter than any field of grain Fushimi had ever seen but also held the same color contrast. His breath hitched in his throat again, that unfamiliar feeling he had felt earlier returned but this time it was accompanied by something much stranger. For the first time in his entire life, he felt as if someone- that someone being Yata- actually saw him, not just another face in a crowded room but saw him for who he was and everything he wasn't.

It chilled him to the bone but it also set something deep inside the darkest corners of his mind ablaze.

“Saruhiko?”

Hesitantly, he nodded his head. 

“Yeah.”

What happened next would forever stay a blur in his mind, not once did he anticipate a warm reaction but the pair of arms that somehow found a way around him made the tension in his body skyrocket. For a brief moment he had to fight off the urge to laugh. _So this is what people do all of the time that I’ve always found strange,_ he mused as he reluctantly wrapped his arms loosely around Yata's waist- ignoring the rise of heat in his chest at the contact. 

It was strange and foreign and the first human contact he had had that didn't stem from pain or torment. It was the first time anyone had ever hugged him- that he could remember anyway- and as reluctant as he was to admit it to himself, it was...nice. 

Yata's head found it's way to his shoulder and his own head dipped down to rest on Yata's, then and only then did he allow his arms to tighten a bit around his waist. With a hot ghost of breath over his ear, Yata spoke and brought him back out of his head.

“T-thank you...I'm so happy to see you.”

He resisted the urge to snort, forced himself to put the smallest amount of trust in Yata and the fact that his words were genuine. He doubted he could handle it if they weren't. 

“I'm happy to see you, too,” he mumbled and while it was far from a lie he couldn't help but curse himself for getting himself into this position to begin with. Yata still refused to let him go and because of that he didn't let go either, relishing in the moment and taking it as a consolation for his inability to to decline the other man's request. While the majority of his mind told him the whole thing was stupid, another- a more hopeful part- told him to enjoy it.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Anything, yeah.”

“I think meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me, is that weird?”

Saruhiko's heart fluttered in his chest, and yet he couldn't stop himself from frowning. 

_But you don't really mean that...do you?_

“No, it's not weird.” 

_Yes it is, why would meeting someone like me be the best thing that ever happened to someone you like you?_

“I'm glad I met you, you've been such a saving grace.” Yata whispered to him, arms tightening around his neck as his head rolled to the side, edging closer to the space between his neck and his shoulder.

Laughing- an almost bitter sounding sound, though there was a hint of relief in it- at that statement, he mumbled out his reply.

“So have you,” he said without an ounce of shame. He remembered how depressed he had been since he had left his home, how horrified he had been when he had seen his father's impending face at his bedside earlier in the night, and he also remembered how all of those times Yata had been the one to come in and save him from himself. He wondered if Yata knew what he was doing, that he was playing with a fire that had been set with kerosene and kept burning on misery, and he wondered that if he didn't know that what he would think if he did. 

He didn't want Yata to get burned and yet he could stop himself from wanting the other man to get closer to him. It was a sad realization, Saruhiko thought as Yata's arms finally loosened around him, that while he was so used to being alone that he had been so silently hoping for someone to come into his world and save him from himself. He didn't need or want a hero, he wanted to be seen by someone and now that he achieved that...he could only wonder what he'd want next. He let his arms fall from Misaki's waist then, smiling to himself when his body became cold again.

“You mean that?” Yata all but beamed as he tilted his head to the side slightly out of curiosity, in doing this, Saruhiko found himself noting how he looked as if he was swaying on his feet. Like his footing was unsteady though the look in Yata's eyes hinted that he knew nothing of what he was doing.

“Yeah...I mean that.” Saruhiko reiterated with another small nod of his head, this time, his smile grew a bit wider when Yata's did. 

“I...I just can't believe you're here right now, words cant even begin to describe how I’m feeling.” Yata confessed as he took a step forward, out of instinct, Saruhiko took one backwards. His face fell a bit as Yata cast him a confused expression, “uhm...are you hungry? I did promise to buy you something to eat.”

“You don't have to,” Saruhiko sighed as he took a step forward, trying to counter act the previous action and the confusion it had caused. 

“Of course I don't,” Yata laughed as he nodded his head towards the front part of the cafe, “but I used that as a gambit to get you out here so the least I can do is follow through with it.”

Saruhiko snorted, stuffing his hands in his jacket as he followed after him as nonchalantly, eyes watching and scrutinizing every step Yata took along the way. There was a spring in his step that he hadn't noticed earlier in the day and every now and again- though the distance between them and the front counter was small- he'd look over his shoulder to make sure Saruhiko was following him. The latter could only wonder if he seemed that flighty.

“Get whatever you want,” Yata smiled as he politely waved at one of his new co-workers- who approached the front register and stood before it- as both of them studied the menu. In truth, Saruhiko was starving- having not eaten anything that he could recall in the last forty eight hours- but he tried to be discreet about it, even going as far as to cough when his stomach decided to growl. 

“A plain ham sandwich is fine,” he decided with a sigh of defeat, not particularly caring for anything else on the menu because it mostly involved vegetables- things Saruhiko would swear were the devil's work because they were so disgusting.

“And chips and a fountain drink for him,” Yata interjected as he placed his hands on the counter, eyes raking over the menu. Saruhiko looked sideways at him out of disbelief. “I'll have a bowl of tomato soup and half of a ham sandwich with a drink, please.”

Out of habit, Saruhiko's nose crinkled up at hearing the word tomato. 

“Okay, it'll be up shortly,” the man behind the counter exclaimed as he handed them two cups, only then did Yata pull a face.

“I haven't paid.”

“Awashima-san let's us have a free meal once a week when we aren't working and she told me to make his meal free too if he ordered anything this week.” The man, Akira Hidaka- or so his name tag said anyway- concluded as he turned around and walked towards the space where the soups and other things were.

“Strange,” Saruhiko commented as he twirled his cup back and forth in the palms of his hands, desperate to remove some of the energy from his body in any way he could.

“Awashima-san is nice,” Yata offered as he turned around, again waiting for Saruhiko to join him as they both made their way to the drink station. “She had nothing but good things to say about you, too.”

“She doesn't even know me,” Saruhiko snorted as he filled his glass with water, finding the other sugary drinks the western style cafe offered a bit out of his taste. “We never really talk.”

“She said that too, but she still thinks you're a good person,” Yata hummed as he filled his glass with some sort of soft drink. 

“I see,” Saruhiko mumbled as he took the initiative to walk back towards the counter and grab their tray of food, by the time he turned around again Yata was already behind him. “My stuff is back at that table.”

“Then we'll go eat there,” Yata smiled as he fell into step with him, “speaking of which, do I need to be quiet at some point and let you work?”

“I can just work tomorrow,” Saruhiko admitted with a sigh of defeat as they approached his usual area of the cafe- where they sat at the table next to his stuff so they didn't have to move anything. 

“Well...how late can you stay out tonight?”

“I...” Saruhiko paused, a bitter smile coming to his lips as he shuffled the chips on his plate. “I have nowhere to be.”

“Won't your room mate or parents get mad if you're not back though?”

“I don't have someone like that.”

“So you live alone?”

_He's incredibly dense, isn't he?_

“Yeah...I suppose.”

“You suppose?” Yata questioned as he cleared his spoon of the soup that was on it before dipping it back into the bowl. Saruhiko didn't give him an answer, only stared down at the untouched food on his plate. “Eat, you look hungry.”

“Yeah,” Saruhiko mumbled as he picked up half of his sandwich, a bit thankful Yata didn't press the subject any further. However- as if to spite him- the conversation took a turn for the worse.

“Awashima-san tells me you stay here a lot,” Misaki began as he finished off his soup. 

“Is that so?”

“You tell me.”

“So blunt,” Fushimi smirked as he took a small bite of his food, giving an inconclusive shrug of his shoulders as an answer.

“So...why do you spend so much time here? It's just a boring cafe,” Yata mumbled quietly, brushing some hair out of his eyes before he rested his his head on his hand.

“It's quiet here,” Saruhiko answered, not a lie but not necessarily the truth either. At this point, his mind began to betray him again.

“O-oh....”

“Were you expecting something else?” 

_He looks so disappointed in you, remember that._

“Something more in depth, I guess. I just...I don't know, I kinda want to know more about you but I don't know where to begin.” Yata confessed with a small stutter, his cheeks flushing slightly as he quickly averted his attention to the table they were seated at. Fushimi's eyes widened slightly at his sudden change in demeanor. 

“Then ask me something,” he suggested as he finished the first half of his food, beginning to work on the chips a moment later. 

“I guess that's kind of the obvious thing to do here, right? You ask someone something when you want to know more about them, of course...” Yata mumbled to himself, as if he were mentally slapping himself for not knowing that in the first place. “I'm kinda...slow sometimes, you might have to bluntly tell me things so I can understand them.”

“Slow?” Saruhiko snickered as Yata's eyes finally rose to met his, “well, it's not like that sort of thing is all bad.”

“How so?”

“If you don't pick up on anything and everything then things that could hurt you or make you feel differently than you do in a negative sense wouldn't be obvious to you. Someone like me, who has to analyze everything to understand it, would probably be happier if I was someone like you who didn't feel that way.”

“Saruhiko?” The way he said his name sent a shock wave straight to his brain, _I said too much already._ Instead of look annoyed or angered by what he had said, Yata smiled- a reaction completely opposite of anything Saruhiko was expecting. “I used to get laughed at for it, hearing it from someone else's perspective in a way that isn't hurtful...it makes me feel a bit better about it, I guess.”

“Surely your friends wouldn't feel such a way, only brainless people would laugh over something like that,” Saruhiko countered with a small smirk, one that grew when Yata's did. 

“Well...I kind of lost all my friends over something stupid I did, no surprise there. Through that I guess I learned not to let things bother me anymore, ya know? Maybe I do notice those things but I don't even realize it, maybe it's my defense mechanism or something.” Yata grinned as he took a sip of his soda, “what about you, Saruhiko? What kind of person are you?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Saruhiko answered with a raised eyebrow as he pushed his food aside, Yata could only laugh in response.

“That you're the kind of person who spends their time in boring internet cafes and is secretly a genius and a King on Jungle?” he suggested.

“Exactly.”

 _It's really hit or miss with you, isn't it? There is no gray zone for you, just black and white. You and I are nothing alike. You see things that aren't there and can't realize what lies before your eyes and I'm the opposite of you, I see things for what they are and don't dwell on them any more than that. How could someone like you and someone like me ever get along this well?_ Saruhiko thought to himself as he too rested his head on his hand. _More importantly, why is talking to you- who is nothing like me- feel so different than talking to anyone else?_

“There's got to be more to you than that,” Yata urged as their eyes met again, Saruhiko found it hard to look away after that.

“Not really.”

“Do you have any other friends?”

“No.”

“Family?”

“No.”

“Interests?”

“Negative.”

“Do you...” Yata paused, his face contorting into some unknown emotion that bordered on the side of understanding but dared to cross over to pity at a moments notice. “Do you have anyone or anything at all, Saruhiko?”

He grit his teeth without meaning to, felt his head drop from his hand and his fingers curl back into his palms until fists were formed, and even worse he felt his eyes shake out of blind rage as he stared angrily at Yata- who now looked more remorseful than anything.

“You have me,” Yata proclaimed as he pointed a finger to his chest, it was then and only then that Fushimi felt his anger fade away- almost instantly. 

“Huh?”

“Me, if nothing else...you have me, okay?”

“Yata...I....”

“I don't have anything or anyone either, I mean...I have one other friend but we don't really talk or see each other anymore...but I don't have any family either. I’ve been on my own since I was fourteen, I haven't really had the chance to meet anyone and even if I did...well...I have a bad habit of scaring people off.” 

“Nonsense,” Saruhiko replied with a click of his tongue, “you're dense, you said it yourself, you probably have a lot of people who care about you and you just don't know it.”

“The only people I’ve spoken to outside of work in five years is you and my other friend, if other people really cared about me...why didn't they say something to me then?” Yata's voice fell a few notches in time with his expression, it was Saruhiko's time to feel guilty. “But that's okay, I have you now, right?”

“Why...why do you want to be friends with someone like me?”

“Someone like you? You say that as if you're not somebody worth knowing,” Yata accused. “You're not as bad as you seem to think you are. You don't talk much but you're a good listener, you don't cause problems but you offer solutions to them whenever they pop up. You're not a people person but people are just naturally drawn to you...do you know how many people would die to know the first thing about you? You're sort of a living legend on Jungle, people on there....”

“Hate me,” Fushimi finished for him, “they hate me because I don't want to engage in small talk or other trivial things.”

“But you don't act that way with me,” Yata smiled as he caught Saruhiko's attention again. “You're...you're somebody worth knowing, and I want to know more about you- as much as you'll tell me. You don't have a clue how much these past few days have meant to me,” there it was again, Saruhiko noted as he stared at Yata's cheeks- that were now doused in red. “You...you're interesting, an-”

“You want to know all you can, right?” Saruhiko snorted as he crossed his arms, leaning back slightly in his chair. With a sigh of defeat, he put together the best explanation he could. “I don't have anyone I turn to and I don't enjoy the same things most people do either. I’m analytical and I hate things I can't understand, I spend my days working or on Jungle. I don't talk to anyone, I’ve never been that sort of person. Is that good enough for you?”

“It's a start,” Yata concurred as he leaned forward, as if to betray him, Saruhiko felt nervousness settle into his stomach. “Why me, Saruhiko? If you hate talking to people then why did you agree to talk to me?”

“Because you're not like other people, somehow.”

“That's not good enough.”

“You...you aren't someone who expects something from me, other than my time. You don't attack my ideals or line of thinking but rather try to understand it, I guess that's why.”

“So...you don't regret meeting me here tonight, do you? You've seemed on edge all night.”

“It's nothing.”

“But...do you regret it?”

Saruhiko's answer was immediate, “I don't.”

“We're an unlikely pair, aren't we?” Yata chuckled as he rested his head atop of his hands, lacing his fingers together in the process. 

“Probably.”

_But I don't regret it...I don't regret meeting someone like you._

“Okay, so let me ask you a few things.”

“Mhm.”

“Red or blue?” 

Saruhiko raised an eyebrow, “huh?”

“Red or blue? Which color do you prefer?”

“Blue.”

“Cats or dogs?”

“Neither.”

“Hot or cold?”

“Hot.”

“Well, that's three out of three missed but I guess I could have told you that,” Yata expressed with a small grin and a dry sounding laugh. Saruhiko couldn't help himself from returning it, even chuckling at the other man's way of testing out how far their differences ran. “We have nothing in common aside from Jungle and yet...that's okay with me.”

 _That's okay with me, too,_ he thought. 

Keeping the smile on his face, he stared intently ahead at Yata- reveling in the way his heart continued to flutter in his chest. 

“Hey, Misaki?”

“Yeah?”

“Black or white?”

_Hit or miss?_

With a look of understanding, Yata's lips twitched upwards into a grin.

“I prefer gray.”

Snickering at being caught at his own game, Saruhiko relaxed in his chair a bit. “That interesting thing I saw today...” he began as he glanced down at the dark wood floor benath them.

“What about it?”

“It was you.”

 _This person...because he's not like the others...might just stick around me...._ As he stared into Yata's shocked yet happy eyes he felt his own begin to soften, _maybe that isn't a bad thing after all._


	6. Foundation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Small time gap...and a lot of fluffy moments...that's all. ^^;
> 
> Wow, thank you all again for all the comments and kudos. I intend to reply to them tomorrow, it's currently really late and I'm half asleep while I'm posting this but I will definitely leave you a reply if you've commented. The support I've gotten for this fic has been awesome and I'm really glad people seem to be enjoying it. (Side note: My other fics will be updated within the week, I've somehow had trouble writing them and I refuse to publish something I'm not satisfied with so please be understanding of that!) 
> 
> I was a bit reluctant to use a time gap here but I'll recap all that happened during that time in the next chapter, if I didn't use one this fic would be extremely long, though. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I'm aiming for here. I expect this to be about 60k words, maybe a bit more. Anything (any pacing) slower would surely tower over 100k. O.o With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy this. ^.^

“Black or white?”

Yata smiled to himself as that question repeated in his head, he had often thought the same thing himself. That his world was not a blur of color but rather only two, things that were either plain as day or as confusing as mathematics- which was something he had never been good with in the first place. Knowing- from the look on his face- that that was exactly the same way Saruhiko had meant it, he let out a small chuckle.

“I prefer gray.”

_Gray, the only color I can see when it comes to you. You're not someone who can fall into the category of an open book but you're also so misleading, you are exempt from my usual way of thinking. I can't see anything else but gray, you're the first person who's ever looked this way to me. Even though I don't understand it, understand how you can sit there with a smile on your face but sadness in your eyes...I want to know the reason behind it. I want to know why you're so unreadable._

Across the table, Saruhiko let out a small laugh, lips twitching upwards into a smirk as if he had been caught- which he had. “That interesting thing I saw today....”

“What about it?”

“It was you.”

“Me?” Yata gawked as he pressed a finger to his chest, “when did you see me?”

“Earlier, when you were leaving I had just gotten in the door.”

“Why didn't you stop me?”

_Why didn't you let me know you were there?_

“I didn't know if that would be something you wanted,” Saruhiko admitted with a drawled out sigh. 

_Of course I would have wanted it._

“I guess that makes sense, prior to my asking you to meet up with me we hadn't really talked about seeing each other in person.” Yata acknowledged as he smiled over at Saruhiko, “but I would have been happy to see you.”

“Well I know that now.”

“Mhm,” Yata hummed as he idly tapped his fingers on the table, “you look really tired, Saru.”

“It's nothing,” Saruhiko snorted but it was becoming increasingly apparent that he was having a hard time holding his eyes open. Come to think of it, he looked a little paler than he had when Yata had initially arrived. 

“You look kinda sick, too.” Yata mumbled as he reached across the table and brushed Saruhiko's hair away before he stuck the back of his hand on his forehead. Saruhiko tensed momentarily but relaxed a second before Yata pulled his hand away, “your forehead is a bit hot....”

“I'm fine,” Saruhiko reiterated though the way he shivered slightly in his chair led Yata to believe otherwise. 

“No, you're not. Why don't I walk you home?”

“No,” Saruhiko spat out- a bit too fast and panicked for Yata's liking- but the moment after his expression softened. “I'll be okay, really.”

“Saruhiko we can always hang out another night, if you're sick I'd rather you get some rest.” Yata frowned as he laced his fingers together, “back when I was a kid my mom used to fuss at me if I was sick and out of bed. Without meaning to I guess I kind of inherited that from her.”

“Who knew you were such a mother hen,” Saruhiko snickered as he grabbed his glass of water and took a sip. “Even if I did go...home...I'd just be alone, I'd rather just stay here.”

“Well...what if I came with you?” Yata proposed with a kindred expression, that shifted to minor shock when Saruhiko's eyes widened at his offer.

“Why would you want to do that?”

“So I could help take care of you, I’m sure you'd do it for me if I was sick.”

“You hardly know me, how can you say that for certain?”

“I guess I can't but I trust that you would,” Yata smiled as he stood up from his seat, “c'mon, the sooner we go the sooner we can get you to start feeling better.”

Saruhiko didn't move.

“Saru?”

“I'd rather stay here.”

At hearing this, Yata became instantly suspicious. Words he heard from both Saruhiko and Seri danced in his head, _he even sleeps here sometimes_ continued to repeat itself in his ears. _Saru...do you have anywhere you can go?_ he thought as he pursed his lips, knowing that what he was about to say would potentially be catastrophic, he braced himself for whatever would follow it.

“Do you...have somewhere you can go?”

“Yeah.”

“You swear?”

“Yeah.”

With a small sigh, Yata sat back down in his chair. 

“Well...it's obvious you don't want me to go with you...so promise me you'll go home and rest, okay? You can call me tomorrow and we'll meet here again if you want, I don't have to work again until Monday so that's three days off work.”

“Go,” Saruhiko smiled- though it looked extremely forced- as he grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “You look tired too, and I don't want you to get sick. If I’m feeling better I’ll you, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

_I'm not that tired...I want to be there for you._

But despite how much he wanted to say that, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead they both walked silently to the front door, smiling at each other one last time as they said their goodbyes and headed off in different directions. Instead of heading home, Yata ducked behind a bus stop bench- one that had an overhang- and waited, eyes trained on the spot where Saruhiko had left. Moments later, he came back into view again, ducking back inside the cafe- where Yata watched through the window- as he took a seat in the booth they had shared. 

This time, Saruhiko all but laid down in it, resting his head against the wall as he pulled his coat off and wrapped it around himself. 

Yata couldn't stop himself from frowning, but knowing that going back now would create a rift between them, he forced himself to turn around and head back to his home. Even when he was curled up in bed, eyes drifting close, he couldn't help but wonder why Saruhiko went back to that place. Seri's words returned to him.

_He even sleeps here sometimes...._

“Saruhiko....”

0o0o0o0o

**Two Weeks Later**

The day after they met for the first time, Saruhiko never called. 

Yata had been upset the entire day over it, wondering if it was something he did or if something had happened in Saruhiko's life that made him unable to call, but the very next day he got his answer in the form of a phone call. One from Saruhiko.

_”I was pretty sick and slept all day yesterday...sorry.”_

That had been his explanation. One Yata had a sliver of doubt about but didn't press it any further, he was just happy Saruhiko called at all. After a short conversation it was decided that they'd meet back up at the cafe and spend the day together. And as the days passed by and Yata resumed working and so did Saruhiko, for that matter, they continued to meet up in that spot and share a meal together. 

They'd talk and laugh, and Saruhiko would show Yata how to become better on Jungle and how to do the basics of coding- though Yata was terrible at it. Each meeting was a bit longer than the last, two hours became something closer to all night- at one point Yata got off work, hung out with Saruhiko, then went directly back behind the counter for work- but even then, neither of them seemed to mind.

They spent their days in that booth, just trying to understand one another and Yata wouldn't have it any other way. He supposed Saruhiko felt the same.

So that's where they were now, both of them sitting in their usual spot at the twenty four hour internet cafe, while Yata answered Saruhiko's question about his life story and tried to ignore the burning curiosity he had over Saruhiko's own life. 

“So after Kamamoto left it was just me in the apartment, then...well...you know the rest.” Yata finished explaining as he relaxed back against the booth both he and Saruhiko were sitting in. Saruhiko had cleared out his last round of J-Cube and was about to begin another when Yata added something else. “What about you? What's your back story?”

Saruhiko's fingers froze over the keys as he turned his head and looked at his companion, minor distress floated back and forth in his eyes as Yata stared back at him with a concerned expression. Every time he went to say something it looked as if he had swallowed a rock and it was lodged in his throat, and so he sat there- gasping like a fish out of water as he tried to form a coherent sentence- but in the end, he could only hang his head and stare at his lap. An ashamed look on his face though his lips twitched upwards into a smile. 

Yata watched him out of confusion for a moment before he cleared his throat, placing a reassuring hand on his knee as he leaned in a bit closer to him. He felt his heart flutter in his chest when Saruhiko's head rose and their eyes met once again. _Comfort him, you obviously asked the wrong thing, you idiot._

“I'm sorry I asked, you don't have to answer.” Yata whispered, his cheeks heating up when Saruhiko offered him another small smile. “But...but...i-if you want to...it's not like I’m gonna judge you for it, okay? My life story kinda sucks and you listened to me...so why wouldn't I do the same for you?”

“It's...it's just not something worth telling,” Saruhiko sighed.

_Why is it that you always look this way whenever I mention your life or home?_

“I doubt that, but then again...coming from you, anything would be interesting. Even the weather,” Yata laughed as he glanced downwards, becoming increasingly aware of the small proximity between them and the fact that his hand was still planted on Saruhiko's knee. With a bit of reluctance- but mainly out of embarrassment- he retracted it.

“My...mother is a CEO of a big company and was never home during my childhood or after it for that matter. My father...well...let's just say he's nothing worth talking about.”

“Was he ever around or anything?” Yata inquired with a small tilt of his head, at that moment something that looked a lot like fear flashed across Saruhiko's ocean colored eyes.

“Yeah,” Saruhiko snorted as he turned his head to the other side, eyes focusing back on his laptop. Under his breath, Yata could hear a few other strange words tumble off the other man's lips, “but I wish he hadn't been.”

_Don't push it any further, he looks spooked enough as is,_ Yata chanted to himself as he scooted a bit closer to Saruhiko, leaving only a few inches of space between them. He glanced over at the laptop with a puzzled expression.

“I've never seen the screen look like that before,” he mumbled as he watched Kotosaka dance back and forth across the screen before a few flashing lights popped up around the page's corners. 

“That's because I just challenged Hisui Nagare to a game,” Saruhiko smirked as he poised his fingers at the keys and mouse pad. Yata stared at him out of shock for a moment before he quickly averted his attention back towards the screen. 

**A BATTLE OF KINGS! A BATTLE OF KINGS!** Kotosaka cawed as it bowed out of the screen. At that moment a strike of what looked like lightning cracked down the length of the browser before the usual intro started up.

**Hisui Nagare has accepted your challenge! Good luck, player!**

**3...2...1...GO!**

Awestruck, Yata watched both player's cubes turn several times before Saruhiko let out a small chuckle, clicking three stray pieces into place with the utmost of ease before the screen flashed once again. 

**YOU WIN! 1,000 JUNGLE POINTS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR ACCOUNT. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY AGAIN?**

“You just beat Hisui Nagare,” Yata chuckled before he turned excitedly towards Saruhiko, placing a hand on his shoulder as he lightly shook him back and forth. “You just beat the creator of Jungle! How are you so calm?!”

“I've beaten him before,” Saruhiko snickered as he turned his attention back to the game and clicked decline on the prompt. “I just like to remind him every now and again that not even he can beat me at J-Cube.”

“Does he not...I don't know...cheat?” Yata mumbled as he leaned in a bit closer, dropping his hand again in favor of leaning on Saruhiko- who momentarily looked shocked but quickly dropped that and went back to his usual expression. 

_That guide I read said Hisui Nagare could beat any player...obviously that's not the truth. But then again, it also said Saruhiko beat him at one point in time...._

“He likes to play fair for some reason or another,” Saruhiko answered as he checked his inbox, at that exact moment a new message appeared. Being the nosy person that he was, Yata leaned in a bit closer so he could read it, too.

**Hisui Nagare: Hello Fushimi Saruhiko,**

**Congrats on beating me at J-Cube, once again. Your talent at that particular game is unparalleled. Also, congratulations on setting a new game record a few days back. I would like to say that this is a message to just exchange pleasantries but there is another reason I have reached out to you. This Friday I will be hosting a party for the top one hundred J-Rank players and the Kings, you are of course invited, however, the reason for the party might interest you.**

**I have been contact by several companies that would like to sponsor you and the other King status players- along with the top 100 J-Ranks- and provide you all with payment, free gaming consoles and games, and also offer you other opportunities to make money. Jungle will remain an ad-free site and will receive no profits from this, but as an individual even I will participate. Running this site is expensive, after all.**

**Individual contracts will be negotiated between these companies and each player, so you will be able to have a say in what you choose to do and what you do not choose to do. The possibilities here are endless but you could still remain anonymous to the general population, if you'd like. The chance to become a very important person in the gaming industry- and a rather wealthy individual is nigh- would you like to attend this party?**

**I will provide drinks and hotel accommodations for the evening- despite the fact most of us are from or live in Tokyo, it would be rude of me not to offer you all the chance to stay in a beautiful five star hotel- along with drinks and food. Room service is free of charge, as is valet parking, and all access passes to the facilities the hotel has to offer. I extend this invitation to you and one person of your choosing, please let me know your answer as soon as possible.**

**Sincerely,  
Hisui Nagare  
Creator of Jungle**

“Holy shit, I heard about this the other day!” Yata blabbed out before he could stop himself, even going as far as to cover his mouth with his hands when Saruhiko shot him a confused stare. “Uhm...Awashima-san had a picture with a King player in her office and we kind of got to talking and well...she told me something about this. Heh...but she's totally not going to rat you out or anything, she'd never do that!”

“No need to freak out over it,” Saruhiko snorted as he clicked his tongue, eyes raking back and forth at the offer on his screen as he contemplated it. “I'm not going to go anyway.”

“What? Why not?” Yata whined as he tugged on Saruhiko's sleeve, “you have to go! This could be your big break, Saru!”

“Who said I needed a big break?” Fushimi snickered as he began to type out his reply, “maybe I like my life like it is.”

“I think you'll regret it if you don't,” Yata offered weakly as he caught Saruhiko's attention once again. “Think about it...it's all expenses paid and everything. If anything, it could be a mini-vacation for you, it's not like agreeing to go will legally bind you into a contract with one of the companies.”

“I'll go on one condition,” Saruhiko smirked as he glanced over his shoulder, “you have to come with me.”

“I can go too?!” Yata squealed as he shot up from his spot on the booth, successfully earning him the attention of everyone in the cafe which caused his face to heat up out of embarrassment. Saruhiko reached up and pulled him back into the seat.

“Yes, you can go, stop yelling.”

“Sorry sorry,” Yata mumbled shyly as he leaned over Saruhiko's shoulder and glanced back down at the screen- where a new reply was displayed.

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I guess I can be there.**

**Hisui Nagare: That's great news, I look forward to meeting you, Fushimi Saruhiko.**

“This is going to be tedious,” Saruhiko said with an exaggerated sigh as he reached for his cup of coffee.

“Tedious? Think about how much money you could make! You could be rich,” Yata laughed as he reached for the laptop and moved it so it sat in front of him. Saruhiko made no move to stop him from logging out of his account, nor when Yata logged onto his own. After the slightly older man was finished, he glanced back at Saruhiko expectantly.

“What?”

“Teach me how to rule on Jungle?”

“Really, Misaki? It's not that simple,” Saruhiko snickered as he sat his glass down. “But it's also just a stupid game.”

“Is not,” Yata challenged as he pulled a practice session- a newer feature that had been sponsored by Jungle- of J-Cube up on his screen. “Pleaseeeee Saru!”

“Fine,” said man grimaced as he pointed at the screen and told him to hit start, “don't just focus on one side of the cube, flip it around so you can see the whole thing and know where the pieces go.”

“Uhm, okay...but how am I supposed to remember that?” 

“Learn it.”

“Maybe J-Cube isn't such a good idea, I never get any better at it.” Yata chuckled as he sheepishly looked over at his companion- who was leaning on him partially, leaving practically no space between them. Noticing this, Yata's cheeks heated up. “M-maybe I should try a game I’ve never played before.”

“Perhaps,” Saruhiko agreed as he reached over and took control of the mouse pad, opening up a list of games- ones he scrolled through with a look of disinterest on his face- until he found one Yata had never seen before. 

“Skate Runner?”

“You said you liked to skateboard, so here's a game you might be good at.”

“What the synopsis?” Yata inquired as he leaned in closer, eyes raking over the flashy screen that displayed the games name.

“You use the arrow keys to navigate through a city, picking up objects that will take time away from your clock or give you a speed boost, and you try to make it to the end of the city before your opponent. Put it in practice mode and see how you fair,” Saruhiko informed him as he leaned back into the booth, eyes still watching Yata's every movement.

“So if I want to be a King in the future, I have to be good at every game on the top ten list, right?” Yata thought aloud as launched into the game, almost immediately getting a feel for it- seeing as it was a first person game.

“Yeah,” Saruhiko confirmed as he leaned forward and pointed out the computer player, Kotosaka, who was only slightly behind Yata's character. 

“What are they again?”

“J-Cube, The Gambler, Me vs. Everyone, Puzzle Master, Spirit Smasher, The Creator, Destroy & Rebuild, 0 to 60, Sink or Swim, and J-Round.”

“And you have to beat them all in a certain amount of time or Kotosaka will do it, right?”

“Yeah, takes your points away and resets your account status back to E-Rank, too.”

“What's a good time on this game?” Yata asked as he glanced over his shoulder, a small smile pulling on his lips when Saruhiko answered.

“Two minutes is a good time for that game.”

“I did it in a minute and fifty six seconds, how's that?”

“Really good,” Saruhiko snickered as he leaned in and and looked at the screen and the display board that popped up with the time on it. “You're even better than I am at this game.”

“You're serious?” Yata asked as he turned his head, blushing instantly when he realized Saruhiko had turned too so they were mere inches apart and face to face. 

“Yeah, I’m serious.” Fushimi replied with a small grin, “you did...well. It's a start, anyway.”

“So...I should get good at this game then try to master the top ten games, right?”

“Yeah...it's gonna take time...but if you really want it bad enough then you'll get there.”

“I'm learning from one of the best, of course I'll get there,” Yata grinned as he logged out of his account and slid the laptop back over to Saruhiko. “Hey, do you wanna go do something fun today?”

“Like what?” Saruhiko inquired as he shut his laptop, gathering up the cord as well before he placed the objects in his bag. 

“Well...anything you want is fine with me,” Yata grinned.

“Let's go to the arcade then,” Fushimi proposed as he situated his bag on his shoulder, adjusting his coat in the process. 

“Mhm, that sounds perfect.” Misaki hummed as he slid out of the booth, waiting patiently for Saruhiko before the two of them walked out the door. Subconsciously, Yata huddled closer to his companion when a particularly cold gust of wind blew their direction. “Oh, by the way, what are you doing for the holiday?”

“Christmas? Isn't that still two weeks away?” Saruhiko grunted as he shivered involuntarily against the frigid breeze.

“Yeah, but still...what are you doing?”

“Nothing, I guess...I'll probably just work.”

“On Christmas? C'mon, that's just sad,” Yata laughed as he tilted his head upwards, eyes widening a bit when a snowflake flew passed his field of vision. “If you're just gonna work, come spend Christmas with me. We could watch shitty movies and I'll cook you dinner and all that crap.”

“You don't have other things you'd rather do?” Saruhiko mumbled as he too cast his eyes upward, both of them coming to a stop on the practically empty sidewalk as they stared fixedly at the sky.

“Not a thing, I'd be...I'd be really happy if you celebrated with me, though.”

“If that's the case...I guess we can do that.”

“You mean it?” Yata beamed as he turned his attention from the falling snow and back to the man that stood next to him. 

“Yeah, if neither of us have any other means of celebrating it...then why not create one for ourselves?”

“Ya know...that's not a bad idea, Saru. Since this world has been so cruel to us...why don't we create something bigger than this place?”

“So our own world, huh?” Saruhiko smiled as his head rolled to the side, for the first time since they had met, Yata saw a glimmer of true happiness reflect back at him in those ocean colored eyes.

“Mhm, why not? If you can turn my life around in the course of a month, be a King player on one of the most popular websites in Japan, and be an over all genius then I'm sure you could create some world of your own.” 

“But if I do that, what would you do?”

“That's a silly question,” Yata smirked as he began walking again, this time Saruhiko caught up to him and walked at his pace. Their arms brushed together the closer they got to one another as the wind became near intolerable and the snow began to fall at a much faster rate. “If you create that world...then I'll do whatever I can to support it and protect it.”

“That...this is all a metaphor for something else, isn't?” Saruhiko mumbled in realization as they finally arrived at the arcade- which they quickly entered to get out of the elements. 

“Is that what you think?” Misaki laughed innocently as he pulled a few bills out of his pocket and approached the coin machine, Saruhiko close behind him.

“Yeah, if I didn't know any better that's what I'd say.”

_Of course it's a metaphor for something...._

“Saru...I...I know I’m dumb but even I can put two and two together.” 

“Misaki?” Saruhiko's voice was understandably concerned, but even then Yata kept smiling and speaking with nothing short of kindness. 

“You...your situation...I think I get it now.”

“What's there to get?” 

“Saruhiko...you...you don't have a place that you stay at, do you?”

At this, Saruhiko seemed to freeze but in his eyes something that almost looked like relief dared to show it's face behind the fear that was most prominent. 

“I told you I....”

“Please, just tell me the truth.”

“I have a place I can go but I don't want to go there, I have enough money to have my own apartment but I don't see the point. Is that good enough for you?” Saruhiko practically spat out, arms spread out and away from his sides as if he already didn't look vulnerable enough.  
Braving the storm of new emotions he faced, Yata stepped forward, clutching his coins in his hand as he encircled his arms around Saruhiko's waist. Burying his face in the spot between his neck and shoulder as he waited for his friend to stop tensing- eventually, he did.

“It's not...but not for the reasons you'd probably think,” Yata whispered as he felt the chill in his bones dissolve- that void was soon filled by an inexplicable warmth that seemed to radiate from Saruhiko and into his own skin. “If we're gonna do all of these things, if I’m gonna become a King of Jungle and you're going to become the ruler of our own little world...then it would be easier if we were together more often, right?”

“Misaki....”

“Move in with me,” Yata mumbled into his ear, “I know this has all been so rushed and shit, but you're my friend- my best friend- and I can't let you go through all this alone. I remain adamant in saying that meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me...please...just let me help you, too.”

“Why...why would you want to do that?” 

At this, Yata could only smile. 

“If I knew why I wanted to move heaven and earth for you...well I'd tell you. Until that day comes, let's just....”

“Fine, but on one condition.”

“Mhm, anything!”

The smile he got as a result only continued to solidify the adoration he felt for Saruhiko.

“I have to pay half of the bills.”

“You'd do that? You're seriously an angel!” Yata chuckled as he buried his face in Saruhiko's chest again. When the younger man's arms finally found a place around his waist he felt that all too familiar feeling of his heart beat begin to increase. He never once stopped smiling.

_Guess it's you and me against the world...huh.... Somehow...I like those odds._


	7. Expectations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh this is late, I blame the holiday. T-T
> 
> Thank you all for the continued support, I promise to reply to your comments as soon as I have a moment to do so but reading them has been very inspiring, so thank you so much! <3 Hope you enjoy this.~

“Since it's so cold out why don't we sleep under the kotatsu tonight?” Yata suggested as Saruhiko finished putting his things away in his half of the dresser drawers. He paused his work, glancing over his shoulder and back towards where Yata stood with a bundle of blankets in his arms. 

“Are you sure...you don't mind me staying here?” Saruhiko thought aloud, registering the shock on Yata's face as he knelt down on the ground.

“Of course not,” Yata replied as he turned the kotatsu on.

“If you say so,” Saruhiko mumbled as he finished putting his things away. If he was honest, he would admit he still had a hard time believing that was true. When Yata had suddenly come to the correct conclusion it had been a very trying ordeal for him. Out of fear, he hadn't told Yata the truth about his situation but to have it so bluntly put out in front of him...he couldn't lie to him anymore- and when he asked for Saruhiko to stay with him he couldn't say no. 

It was an odd thing in Saruhiko's mind, that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't bring himself to ever tell Yata- his one true friend, the only one he had ever had- no. It was a reoccurring issue for him but he didn't press the matter, only figured that it was because he didn't want to disappoint him- which wasn't far from the truth. Having Yata's support and approval had become vital for him, the more time they spent together the less alone he began to feel. 

It was pleasant and it was foreign, but it was the first type of contact Saruhiko had had that he was desperate to keep and hang onto. He decided earlier in the same day that if going to that party Jungle was hosting meant he could establish a good living for himself then he would do it, so he could repay Yata by ensuring that he never had to worry about money again or fear that he would lose his home. He didn't want it for himself, but he wanted it for Yata. 

He felt like he owed him so much, that the way he was now- not someone who cowers at the thought of social situations, though he still didn't like them, or someone who had nothing to his name but the clothes on his back- was all thanks to Yata's kindness. He had someone he wanted to help and protect now and it was a precious thing to him. He wasn't sure when it happened, when his guard had dropped and when his fear of rejection had begun to fade away, but the moment he met Yata it had all seemed to change for him. 

During their time together he had lost his fear of Yata ever leaving his side, despite everything-and though it did remain a small thought in the back of his head- he felt as if Yata needed him and he needed Yata. It was a delicate balance that stemmed from the fact they were both lonely souls who had no one else or nothing else to turn to but it suited them well. 

Saruhiko never knew companionship could be such a beautiful thing. He had always wanted to be alone and spend his time away from the rest of the world and it's people and that hadn't really changed, however, this time around Saruhiko wanted something greater than that. He wanted to be the one to pull the strings for once, to create something indestructible and spend his days building that up so he and Yata could have a place to belong in a world that had turned it's back on them. 

When everything had started, Saruhiko had just wanted to be seen by somebody. Now that he had accomplished that he had something else in mind, he wanted to always be somebody important to Yata- if not the most important in his world. It was a silly thing to Saruhiko but it was what his heart and mind craved, the one person who showed him how great life could be was someone he wanted to do everything for. 

He wasn't always appreciative and he wasn't always the kindest, but that was not because Saruhiko didn't care. In fact, it was because he cared too much. Growing up, spending year after year alone and in despair had taken it's toll on him, that much he knew, but now he had a chance to be well and truly happy- and he refused to let go of that. He didn't think he deserved it, didn't think he deserved to have someone as great as Yata by his side or the chance to live a good life, but he was secretly thankful.

In that small apartment that was tiled and run down, that had two bunk beds, a kotatsu, small kitchenette and nothing more, it felt like home to him already. He hated his old house and hated who lived there, and his body hated him for the fact he had spent three and a half weeks sleeping in cafe booths and this time around he was being offered a chance to sleep in a place that was safe. Somewhere secure and warm, somewhere where he wouldn't have to worry about his father's abusive ways or his mother's absence and somewhere he wouldn't have to worry about the cruel strangers that he surely met when he slept in public places.

That place was welcoming to him and he welcomed it back. Saruhiko knew it was pathetic of him to think of it that way but considering what little he had in the world he couldn't blame himself for developing an emotional attachment to the small apartment because it was the first place he felt truly welcome and wanted in. Who lived there made it all the better in his mind. It was perfect, it was unlike anything Saruhiko had ever had the pleasure of being a part of before.

_Our own little world,_ as Yata had so bluntly called it. But it was more than that and it would always be more than that. In that moment, that was filled with uncertainty and unknown feelings, Saruhiko took a seat across from Yata at the kotatsu and settled himself in with the blanket. Some food Yata had whipped together sat in front of them and in Saruhiko's eyes, it looked much better than the food that the cafe they frequented had to offer. 

“Misaki,” he began after he bowed his head and made a plate for himself- careful to avoid any of the vegetables that were in the dish though his companion frowned at him for that. “I...I want to thank you....”

“For what?” Yata inquired as he took a bite of the grilled chicken he had made, across the table Saruhiko's face fell. “Oh...you mean for this? Don't mention it, I'm gonna like having you around. To be honest, I hate living alone more than anything...having you here...well, it's just gonna be great.”

“I still want to thank you for it.”

“Anything for you,” Yata smiled as he grabbed a spoonful of mixed veggies and slopped them on Saruhiko's plate. “Now eat your vegetables.”

“Drink your milk,” Saruhiko challenged as he pushed the offending veggies to the other side of his plate. Yata made a noise of astonishment before he let out a laugh, something that made Saruhiko's lips twitch upward. 

“So, about this Jungle party thing...what do you think you're gonna do?”

“I'll probably take a contract,” Saruhiko sighed as he picked up another piece of chicken, “I could probably make a lot more money that way.”

“I thought you didn't want to,” Yata mumbled as he pulled the blanket up higher on himself. 

“Cold?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Then hurry up and eat so you can lay down,” Saruhiko scoffed though for some reason he couldn't place, he wanted to move closer to Yata at that point. As if the latter felt the same way he scooted his plate across the table before shuffling around it, not stopping until he was side by side with him.

“Or I could just sit here because ya know...body heat or whatever.”

“Is that what they call that?” Saruhiko smirked as he glanced sideways at his companion- who's face flushed almost instantly.

“S-shut up.”

“What was that, Misaki?”

“Shut up, Saru!” 

With a small sigh, Saruhiko pulled his coat that he was wearing off his shoulders and draped it around Yata's. “You need to buy a real coat and stop parading around in flannels like they're going to keep you warm, it's freezing outside.”

Yata's blush intensified as he pulled the coat tighter around himself, “I know...I'm just bad at remembering those kind of things.”

“You mean you're bad at taking care of yourself, right?”

“I've never really had a reason to.”

“Misaki, don't say things li-”

“Forget it,” Yata interrupted as he continued where he left off, working on his food diligently which in turn silenced Saruhiko any further- though what Yata had said hurt a part of himself beyond belief.

“I'll eat these disgusting things if you promise you'll get yourself some proper clothes,” Saruhiko grimaced as he poked around at a carrot. 

“Then go ahead and eat them, after work Wednesday we can go shopping.” Yata smirked as he patted his friend on the back- an action that was anything but soothing to Saruhiko as he came face to face with his nemesis. With an agitated growl, he picked the carrot up and chomped on it, swallowing it whole instead of chewing though it still made his stomach turn.

“Can't, I can't do this,” Saruhiko coughed as he looked down at the remaining veggies. Yata chuckled, leaning in further until his head rested against Saruhiko's shoulders.

“C'mon, they're not that bad.”

“They're awful and so are you, what kind of masochist are you?”

“The kind who wants their friend to eat healthy so they stop getting sick, eat the vegetables.”

“Tch.”

With every ounce of will power he had, Saruhiko forced himself to scoop them up and into his mouth, swallowing each whole until his plate was clear and devoid of any more offending objects. When he was finished he leaned backwards, all but flinging himself down on the futon mattress beneath him- but to his slight surprise, that wasn't exactly what he hit. It was Yata- who had somehow gotten caught in between him and the futon in his descent and fell with him as a result. 

Face to face, they blinked for a few seconds before Yata let out a humored laugh- something Saruhiko chuckled at as he pulled the blanket up and around them. The light above them was already off, leaving only a small lamp in the corner of the room as the only light source but neither of them seemed willing to get up and turn it off. When the laughter finally died down, Saruhiko became increasingly aware of the small proximity between them but he made no comment on it nor moved to change it. 

“Goodnight Saruhiko,” Yata smiled as he pulled both the coat he was given and the blanket closer to his chest. 

“Goodnight Misaki,” Saruhiko returned as he slipped his glasses off and reached behind him to set them aside- before he could do that he froze. _He must have forgotten to do that..._ he thought as he pulled himself out of the small gap between the table and futon and stalked over to the front of Yata's apartment-momentarily ignoring said mans question as to what he was doing. “You forgot this,” Saruhiko replied as he locked the door- and along with it, abandoned all memories of the place that he'd never have to return to again.

0o0o0o0o

“How does it look?” Yata questioned as he emerged from the dressing room for the billionth time. Saruhiko rolled his eyes and relaxed further back into the chair he was currently seated in. 

“It looks fine, just like all the other ones have.”

“Well I can't decide,” Yata frowned as he turned, showing off the all black pea coat he was currently wearing. 

“That one, that's the nicest.” Saruhiko offered with a small smile as Yata eagerly grinned at him. “Can we go now? It's getting late and you worked all day, I’m sure you're tired.”

“Yeah, we can go,” Yata said happily as he slipped the coat off and pulled it over his arm, not bothering to grab the unwanted ones out of the fitting room. After grabbing the small stack of clothes they picked out for the Jungle gala, they trudged through the small crowded store and towards the front counter. After separating their things and paying, the two of them set out on the short journey back to their shared apartment. “Hey, Saru?”

“Mhm, what is it?”

“Not to uh...sound rude or anything...but are you...are you happy?”

Saruhiko turned to glance over at his companion, picking up on every subtle twitch of Yata's lips- leaving him wondering if Yata regretted asking that question though he couldn't see why. “I'm happy...yeah.”

“You promise me, Saruhiko?” Yata mumbled as he came to a dead halt in the middle of the pavement, after stopping himself, Fushimi looked back at him. 

“I promise, I have nothing to gain by lying to you.” He whispered as he reached out and grabbed Yata by the arm, “c'mon, it's cold out.”

“I'm happy too, ya know.” Misaki said as he continued to stare down at the sidewalk beneath their feet. “I keep thinking that this has just been some elaborate dream...that I'll wake up and none of this will be real.”

“Why would you think that?” Saruhiko inquired as they rounded the corner towards their apartment complex, his hand was still clutched onto Yata's wrist but as soon as he looked down to take in the sight, Yata's hand shifted upwards. Their palms touched for a brief moment before Saruhiko loosened his grip, allowing their hands to touch before he awkwardly parted his fingers and wrapped them around Yata's- to his surprise, Yata' response was immediate and he squeezed their hands together.

“Because it's all been too good to be true,” Misaki confessed, his words coming out with a small stutter. When Saruhiko looked at him for a facial expression he wasn't surprised when Yata was still staring at the ground, hiding his face from view behind his hair.

“What would you do if this was just a dream?” Saruhiko asked with a blank expression though on the inside he felt anything but calm. His heart fluttered in his chest anytime Yata squeezed their hands together and every time they turned a corner he had to stop himself from smiling as their contact wasn't broken. It was maddening to him, that something so simple that he had never once understood, felt so right in that moment. 

As cliché as it was, Misaki's hand fit perfectly in his. It was smaller and a bit softer than Saruhiko's own and while it felt so much warmer to him, he wasn't sure if that was because of the fact that he was always cold or if that was the same cliché _warmth_ people claimed to get when they held someone else's hand. It almost felt wrong to Saruhiko, he tried to remind himself how the him of a month ago felt about other human beings but then again, Yata was different.

Saruhiko didn't pull his hand away for many reasons but mainly because he didn't he want to.

“If it was just a dream then I don't think I would want to wake up,” Yata laughed as he finally looked up and directly at his companion. Saruhiko wasn't unaware of the glimmer in Yata's eyes or the light pink color that dusted his cheeks but he didn't bring it up, only caught himself smiling a little in response. 

“If it was me, I wouldn't want to wake up either.”

“Even if it meant you could have another dream? One where you were rich and had everything you could ever want?” Yata asked as they got to their doorstep, Saruhiko carefully shifted the bag that was in his hands as he fiddled with the front door key. 

“I don't need anything else, so no, I still wouldn't.” Saruhiko replied as they finally got into their apartment, after setting their bags aside they finally let go of one another but even after the distance between them stayed at an arm's length. It was only when they were both seated side by side at the kotatsu that Saruhiko finally brought it up. “My hand....”

“S-shit, I mean...did I over step my boundaries there?” Yata immediately choked out in response. Cheeks flushing an even darker shade of pink before he settled on hanging his head downward, eyes staring at the floor as if it was suddenly more interesting. 

“That's not what I meant,” Saruhiko sighed as he slipped his coat off, setting it and his glasses aside as he leaned back on the futon mattress underneath them. “Why do you always jump to negative conclusions before I even finish speaking?”

“You do the same thing, ya know...” Yata mumbled as he finally had the nerve to glance back at him. 

“I suppose,” Fushimi mumbled as he pulled the blanket over him. “It's late, turn the lights off and lay down.”

“Sure,” his companion countered as he slipped out from under the table and did as instructed, coming back a few minutes later in some more comfortable clothes. “Eh, Saruhiko?”

“Mhm?”

“So what were you going to say...before I cut you off?”

“Lay down,” Saruhiko demanded with an exasperated tone of voice, one that Yata cursed under his breath about before he plopped down on the futon- right beside him. “I don't know what I was going to say,” Saruhiko snickered as he wrapped the covers further around himself. Even after a few nights of staying with Yata, his will to sleep alone remained an adamant part in his mind- but now he was trying to counter it with something he had never even considered before, someone sleeping beside him that was.

It still made him uneasy but that wasn't Yata's fault nor was it his own, if it wasn't for the things he had experienced as a child then he wouldn't feel that way about it. When it boiled down to it, if it was anyone else- and not Yata- then he would certainly not even be in this position, but for some reason unbeknownst to him, he trusted Yata now and trusted him near fully. Sure, there were things Saruhiko wouldn't tell him and it wasn't as if he had opened up his heart anymore than he needed too, but it also wasn't like he felt compelled to lie to Yata anymore. 

It was a strange and precarious balance that seemed to work for them and only them, and only after Saruhiko was sure that Yata wouldn't leave his side- not now and not ever- than he would always keep a part of himself hidden from those amber colored eyes. On a similar note, it was almost as if Yata was hiding a part of himself from Saruhiko as well. It didn't bother him in the slightest because if it did then he would be acting extremely sacrilegious- though at this point, he couldn't help but wonder what was being kept from him.

“You don't know? What kind of answer is that?” Yata chuckled as he slipped under the covers and rolled on his side, even in the darkness Saruhiko could see the perplexed expression on the brunette's face. 

“The only answer I have,” Saruhiko countered as he offered him a small smile. “Sleep, you're exhausted.”

“Fine fine, but answer me this,” Yata began, though his voice seemed hesitant. Knowing what was coming next, Saruhiko clicked his tongue before blindly searching underneath the blankets before he found what he was looking for. He grabbed Yata's hand in his own before closing his eyes.

“Just sleep, okay?”

Yata squeezed his hand back before mumbling out, “o-okay.”

“Goodnight, Misaki.”

“Goodnight, Saru.”

For some reason or another, that was the best night of sleep Saruhiko had ever gotten. He woke up the next morning, alone and with a note and plate of food next to him in Yata's place, after sliding his glasses on he grabbed the small piece of paper and read off of it.

_**Good morning, sleepy head! ^.^** _

_**You looked really peaceful so I didn't want to wake you, I'm surprised I woke up before you, actually! You usual beat me to it, after all. XD Anyway, I made you some breakfast- yes, there are no veggies in it, calm down. But I'll be back around seven so you have a few hours to work in peace before I get back. Also, Awashima-san said I could have Friday off for the party (oddly enough, she's going too O.o) so I just wanted to let you know. This is a western-style breakfast I learned at work, by the way! Have a good day and I hope the food isn't bad. :D** _

_**-Yata** _

“No vegetables, huh?” He mumbled to himself as he sat up and grabbed the small box of food, sitting it down on the table before he popped the lid off of it and stared at the contents. It was simple, eggs and thickly sliced ham with a side of toasted bread with jam but it immediately made Saruhiko's stomach growl. With a small shrug of his shoulders, Saruhiko wolfed the food down, smiling all the while as he took note of how perfect everything was despite it's simplicity. 

As he sat the box aside and rested his head on his hands his eyes couldn't help but drift from one corner of the room to the other. Even alone in the little apartment, he felt more comfortable and more at home than he had ever felt in the place he had once been forced to stay in. Chuckling, he threw himself back onto the futon and stared up at the ceiling before his eyes flitted over to the piece of paper that laid beside him, the grin on his face grew a bit wider.

“How did I get so lucky?” He asked himself as he plucked the note off the ground again, this time he clutched it in his hand. “I don't deserve any of this,” he said aloud as he tossed his head back and stared behind him and out of the rooms only window. 

_As I told him yesterday...if this really is a dream, then I hope I never wake up._

0o0o0o

First thing Friday morning, Saruhiko's phone vibrated with a list of clear instructions for the party he and Yata would be attending later in the evening. They were expected to be present at five sharp and checked into the hotel by two. They had packed their bags early the night before and were currently in the small bathroom that was adjacent to where their bunk beds resided. Yata was furiously brushing his hair and checking it in the mirror while Saruhiko merely ran a hand- covered with product- through his hair until it was styled.

“What if we're...I don't know...too dressy?” Yata sighed as he pointed back towards their dress clothes they had bought for evening. 

“It said formal attire was mandatory,” Saruhiko reminded him as he toyed with the ends of his hair and adjusted his glasses. “Why are you so nervous?”

“I'm not nervous, just a bit excited,” Yata corrected him as he gave up on his hair and instead settled for sitting on the bathroom counter. “Are you nervous?”

“No,” Saruhiko answered in short as he spared a glance over at his friend. “I'm just ready to get this over with.”

“Why are we even going if that's how you feel?” Yata frowned as he huffed and crossed his arms, seeming genuinely disappointed.

“Because you wanted to go and I said we could,” Saruhiko answered with a small frown as he gave Yata his undivided attention. “Let's just....”

“Go and have fun, right?” Misaki suggested with a grin as he hopped off the counter and grabbed the black slacks and dark red shirt he was going to wear for the evening. Saruhiko sighed and picked up the ¾ sleeve dark blue shirt he had picked out, along with a black vest and dark colored pants before he began to retreat out of the bathroom. 

“Yeah,” Saruhiko agreed as he shut the door to give Yata a place to change clothes while he went back out into the main room of the studio apartment. After sliding out of his sweatpants and redressing himself in the formal attire he was expected to wear, he made a grab for the dress shoes he had had for quite some time before making himself comfortable on the edge of Yata's bed, he smiled slightly when he spotted said man's laptop- along with a page of notes that were scribbled out about how to beat certain games on Jungle. 

“I've been practicing a lot,” Yata said as he came back into the room, Saruhiko picked up the note pad and looked it over instead of glancing over at him. “Whenever you're working and I’m home I just come here and focus on that. I still want it, ya know...to be a great player.”

“You're on your way,” Saruhiko acknowledged as he sat the paper aside and finally turned to face his room mate. 

“So...how do I look?” Yata laughed as he spun around, his arms outstretched a little bit as he showed off his attire. Saruhiko felt his breath hitch in his chest, though it only lasted for a moment.

“Nice...you look nice,” he commented as he stood up, eyes glancing down at his PDA as he checked the time. They had forty minutes to get to the hotel and get checked in and only three hours before the party's check in began. When he had said he wasn't nervous, he had been lying a bit to himself. He was nervous, he didn't do well with parties and he certainly didn't do well with other people but somehow, with Yata being there with him, he felt as if he'd be okay. 

So long as he wasn't forced to associate with anyone more than was necessary. 

“Right back at you,” Yata chuckled as he grabbed his duffel bag before picking up Saruhiko's as well. “I wonder what kind of stuff will be available at the hotel...like the amenities and whatnot.”

“Who knows...” Saruhiko shrugged as he reached out and took his bag before he glanced around the room in search of anything else he might have forgotten. Deeming his laptop unnecessary, he snatched the house keys off the hook and stuffed them in the front pocket of his bag before opening the front door and waiting for Yata to exit. After shutting the lights off he followed after him. 

“By the way,” Yata hummed as they fell into step beside one another as they started off on the twenty minute walk to the hotel they were to be staying in, Saruhiko glanced over at him with inquisitive eyes. “I promise I won't abandon you at the party, I know this isn't your kind of thing and I’m the only reason you're going anyway...right?”

“Right,” Saruhiko confirmed with a click of his tongue, “this...I'm not interested in this for myself.”

“Then what are you doing this for?” Misaki asked as he took a step closer to Saruhiko, wrapping his arm around his as a particularly cold gust of air hit them- despite the fact he was wearing his new coat he still hated the cold. 

“I thought that much was obvious,” Saruhiko snorted as he glanced down at him, smiling slightly when Yata's eyes reflected nothing but confusion- though the blush on his face dared to hint at something completely different. “I'm doing this...so we can have everything we need without having to worry ourselves to death about it.”

“Why...why would you do this for anyone but yourself?” Yata mumbled as he leaned his head on Saruhiko's shoulder, not even the cold wind seemed to bother him this time around. 

“It's pretty simple, really,” Saruhiko chuckled as he slowed his walking pace to accommodate the way Yata was leaning on him. “If you and I are going to spend all of our time creating our own world...wouldn't it be easier if we didn't have to worry about money?”

“Well...yeah...you have a point,” Yata whispered in realization before he tugged on Saruhiko's sleeve. “But like hell do I want you having to do all the work, it's not right. I shouldn't reap the benefits of your labor, that's not how this works.”

“Who said you wouldn't be doing anything?” Fushimi countered with a raised eyebrow, “you're the one who said they'd protect that place, that's all you need to do.”

“And when it's built up and safe...then what?” Yata mumbled as he tightened his grip around his arm, Saruhiko looked down at him with a smile on his face. 

“Then we can talk about the real reason behind this metaphor.”

_Then we can talk about what we've danced around for so long...what we're too afraid to admit to ourselves._


	8. Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments! :D I'm going to reply to them as soon as I can, they mean a lot to me, though! 
> 
> Important: I'm not going to ramble too much, but this chapter is kind of a 1/2 (one of two) kinda deal. So the next chapter will be from Yata's POV (for certain reasons this needed to be from Saruhiko's) but will not be a re-cap of things from this chapter from his perspective but rather a continuation from this chapter. So this is the Jungle party part 1, next will be Jungle party part 2. Hope that makes sense. XD
> 
> Warnings: Angst, a lot of angst, how did this much angst even get here? And fluff, a decent amount of (probably) unexpected fluff. Also, tw: anxiety and mentions of anxiety attacks.

“Hello and welcome to Jungle's first annual gala, please pull up your Jungle ID and swipe your PDA under the scanner,” a masked man instructed as Yata and Saruhiko both pulled out their phones, following the orders before they turned back to him. “Ah yes, Mr. Yata Misaki, let me get you a pass.”

After a few relatively awkward seconds, the man turned away from them and walked over to a machine that pressed out a lanyard with Yata's name on it- along with Jungle's logo and the word **GUEST** written in bold text at the bottom. 

“As for you, Mr. Fushimi Saruhiko, your pass is already made.” The man informed them as he reached for a metal lock box and typed in a combination before brandishing another lanyard. Saruhiko took it with a small nod before he slipped it over his neck, examining it for a moment afterward. On the back side, it had his name at the top and the jungle logo but on the side that was meant to be face up was a neon green crown splayed against a black background. The word **KING** was written in white text at the bottom.

“Your table number is one, and it is at the very front of the room by the stage. Your guest will of course be allowed to sit there as well. Feel free to help yourselves to the beverages at the bar or collect some hor d'oeurves before the waiters come around for your orders. Have a great night and thank you for attending.”

“Thanks,” Fushimi mumbled awkwardly as he and Yata both followed the red carpet that was lined out- rather cliché in his opinion- until they reached what he presumed was the hotel's ballroom. They stood in the doorway for a second before Yata gently nudged him in, something he smirked at before he surveyed the crowd around them. There was already at least two hundred people present, which he presumed was the entirety of the party meaning they were the last to arrive, but the room was anything but packed.

The ballroom was as extravagant as it was large, two long bars- one for cocktails and the other for food- lined the walls on either side and large round tables were scatted out in the middle. Each table was ornately designed in black and green, even the plates were color coated. On the center of each table was a center piece with a number on it, along with tropical plants that varied from table to table.

They awkwardly walked down the isle between the tables as they made their way to the clearly more elaborate table that was reserved for the Kings. On the stage, a hologram with Jungle's logo turned back and forth and a podium was set up on the left hand side of the stage itself. The closer they got to the table the more aware Saruhiko became of what situation he was in, and for a moment he debated turning tail and running but he also knew doing that would disappoint Yata- who looked absolutely thrilled to be there- and that wasn't something he was willing to do. 

When they finally arrived, the first person he recognized was Seri Awashima- who hopped up from her seat and excused herself from whatever conversation she was having before she approached them. At that point all eyes around the King's table fell on them as she gave Yata a quick hug before repeating the action with Fushimi- who awkwardly returned it.

“I'm so glad you two could make it,” she proclaimed with a smile as she tucked a piece of loose hair behind her ear. 

“Thanks for giving me the night off, Awashima-san,” Yata said politely with a small bow before he placed a hand on Saruhiko's shoulder. “Thanks to you anyway, I finally had the courage to ask Saru to meet up with me.”

“Well I'm glad then,” Seri said as she stepped aside a bit and waved a hand behind her. A few people rose to their feet as she did so. “Allow me to to introduce you to a few friends of mine, first, this is Kusanagi Izumo, my fiance.”

“How's it going?” Izumo asked rhetorically as he reached out and shook Yata's hand before Saruhiko reluctantly did the same.

“And this is Munakata Reisi, 4th King of Jungle,” Seri introduced as a tall man with glasses politely walked around the table before stopping in front of them. Saruhiko felt his breath hitch a bit when their eyes met but he couldn't pinpoint why, there was just something so pointed about the man in front of him that he found himself standing a bit taller than usual. Trying to look as confident as possible, though he was sure his attempts fell flat. He felt Yata stiffen beside him a bit, as well.

“Fushimi Saruhiko, Jungle's number 6, am I correct?” Reisi waited for Saruhiko to nod his head before he offered his hand, “Munakata Reisi, it's a pleasure to meet you in person at long last.”

“Likewise,” Saruhiko managed to mumble out as he dropped Reisi's hand and watched as Yata quietly introduced himself. When finished, Reisi stepped aside and in his place someone else approached them. Immediately, red flags began popping up as the man got closer and closer to him. 

“Ah yes, and this is Suoh Mikoto, Jungle's 3rd best player and best friend of my fiance,” Seri explained with a hint of feigned happiness- which had Saruhiko raising an eyebrow.

From the get go, Saruhiko didn't like him. He looked cocky, with a too smug grin on his face and a glint of laziness in his eyes, for some reason or another it rubbed Saruhiko the wrong way. Yata, however, had a reaction completely opposite of his from the moment Suoh Mikoto opened his mouth.

“I'm Yata Misaki, it's nice to finally meet you.” 

“Yata Misaki, huh? Don't I know you?”

“We've spoken on Jungle a few times,” Yata explained with a slight blush- something that made Saruhiko set his jaw for reason's he couldn't place at first. “I'm surprised you remember me.”

“Kinda hard to forget someone as loud as you,” Mikoto shot back with a small smirk and a wink- as if that sentence hadn't been suggestive enough without it- in Yata's direction before he blandly looked over at Saruhiko.

“Fushimi Saruhiko, somehow I didn't think you'd look like that,” Mikoto explained with a look of disinterest before he extended his hand out to him. With a forced smile Saruhiko shook his hand.

“Oh really?” Saruhiko bit back as he unconsciously took a step closer to Yata. 

“Ah,” Mikoto acknowledged with a sigh, seeming willing to drop the subject until Reisi whispered something angrily to him and he pulled a face. “I didn't mean that in a bad way, you're just...uh....”

“He's horrible at conveying his thoughts, you'll have to excuse him,” Reisi intervened with a bitter expression before he smiled slightly at Saruhiko. “That was supposed to be a compliment but he butchered it in it's entirety.”

“Shut up,” Mikoto grunted as he adjusted the lanyard around his neck then turned away from them and walked back to his side of the round table. It was at that moment Yata let out a small chuckle and Saruhiko decided that while something got under his skin about Suoh Mikoto, he didn't exactly mind Munakata Reisi.

“Please, have a seat,” Seri finally invited as she pulled two chairs back for them before taking a seat beside Yata. 

“I hope this doesn't last long,” Saruhiko admitted under his breath as he glanced over at Yata, immediately frowning when he realized Yata was already speaking to the person who sat in front of him, Suoh Mikoto to be precise. A pang of that unnamed emotion he felt earlier hit him square in the chest and he found himself shrinking back into his chair at that moment. 

The other Kings introduced themselves to him but it was all a bit of a blur, a blur in which Saruhiko feigned kindness to the smallest degree before immediately losing attention again. Hisui Nagare was due to take the stage at any moment and make his grand appearance but not even that could stop Saruhiko from wanting to leave that place already. 

He was sick of people trying to talk to him and trying to take photos with him like he was some sort of celebrity, but what really made him sick was the way that every time he went to speak to Yata he found himself being ignored. The few times he attempted hurt him worse than the last, to the point that he gave up all together and instead stared down numbly at his hands- drowning out the conversations going on in the room and the music that thumped in the background. 

Every time Yata would laugh he found himself smiling bitterly. 

_You said you weren't going to do this, you know..._ he wanted to say but knew that if he did it would only fall on deaf ears. When the waiters came around and took their orders Saruhiko refused a menu, glancing up at the waitress with an unreadable expression.

“I only want a water,” he announced before he turned back around and continued to stare off into space. It wasn't until he felt a hand clamp on his shoulder that he finally snapped out of his trance again. 

“Forgive me if I startled you, but I was wondering if you and I could have a word? Outside, perhaps?” 

Saruhiko blinked several times before he glanced back, his eyes widening a bit when they locked onto Reisi Munakata's. Fighting off the urge to laugh and downright refuse, he rose to his feet and followed after him, not bothering to tell Yata where he was going- even though he thought he heard him ask. 

Once out of the ballroom, Saruhiko let out a deep breath he didn't realize he had been holding in as he leaned on the wall for added support. His legs felt shaky, as if they'd give out at any moment- which was certainly something he didn't want. He fought for a moment to regain control of his breathing before he glanced up at the only other person in the vicinity.

“You seemed to be having some soft of anxiety attack, Suoh pointed it out to me actually...” Reisi explained as he took a small step forward. “Is everything all right?”

“All right is relative term, you know...” Saruhiko chuckled bitterly as he braced his hands on his knees. “I just don't like crowds.”

“Social anxiety then? That's very common, it's not something to be ashamed of.” Reisi concluded with a small smile as he continued to approach him. 

“It's not something like that,” Saruhiko finally answered as he took one final deep breath then rose to his feet. “Even if it was, I don't need you to be my therapist.”

“I'm sorry, that's not what I was trying to do here,” Reisi said with a hint of surprise as his eyes traveled back towards the ballroom. “They're about to begin...are you comfortable enough to go back?”

“Go,” Saruhiko mumbled as he leaned his head back against the wall. “I'll be in there when I can.”

“Of course.”

Once alone, Saruhiko sunk to the ground, his head still against the wall as he folded his hands in his lap, shaking his head slightly as he pondered how pathetic he must have looked in that moment. He vaguely recalled hearing someone announce the arrival of Hisui Nagare to the stage but he couldn't bring himself to get off the ground. His legs felt like jello, unable to support any weight and every time he considered forcing himself up and back into that room he felt like he would be sick. He told himself his eyes weren't stinging but as he removed his glasses and wiped at them he knew that was a blatant lie. 

_Why am I acting like such an idiot?_ he thought to himself as he let out a shuttered breath, bringing his knees close to his chest as he slipped his PDA out of his pocket. As if the universe was mocking him, that was when his phone rang. He felt a bitter smile creep up on his lips as he answered the phone, knowing that number by heart and knowing the person on the other end of the line would send him crashing back into reality. Not some sort of dream turned nightmare- that he was convinced he was having at this point. 

“Hey Monkey, where are you? I've been looking all over for you!”

“I'm at a party right now,” he answered honestly as he screwed his eyes shut, listening to the horrendously loud laugh on the other end of the line as the smile continued to grow on his own face. _Tell me something terrible...would you? I need something to distract me from this._

“A party? Who would invite you to a party?”

“Someone not worth mentioning to you,” Saruhiko mumbled into the receiver as his free hand raised up and settled on his collarbone, where he scratched at the skin underneath his shirt repetitively- an old habit he had picked up years ago.

“You know they don't really want you there, right?” Niki laughed and it was at that moment that Saruhiko finally found the strength to get up off his knees. He glanced back into the ballroom with a frown on his face, one that fell further when he realized Yata was no longer in the room. “You know they're just pretending to be your friends, don't you? Why don't you come home? It's been so long since I've seen you, my little Monkey.”

“Maybe that's a good idea,” Saruhiko found himself mumbled before he could stop himself. With one last look into the ballroom he spun on his heel and began to walk away from it, feeling his shame grow heavier the further away he got. Along the way, he hung up the phone, stuffing it into his pocket with a look of sheer devastation before he forced his lips up into a smile.

It was stupid of him he was sure, but something inside his mind had broken the moment he realized he had become another person in the background, not to just anyone but to the one person he felt would never see him that way.

When he had called out for Yata all those times he had expected an answer, expected to see Yata's eyes light up and a smile on his face as he looked at him but instead he had received no reaction whatsoever. Yata had been too engrossed with everyone else and namely, Suoh Mikoto, to realize that he was still there. It wasn't healthy, their relationship wasn't healthy, he knew that. Knew it was wrong of him to be so _jealous and spiteful_ \- and yes, he did admit to himself that he was- that he felt it would be better off if he wasn't there at all. 

But before he could even cross the threshold of the hotel lobby he felt a hand clamp down on his wrist. After speaking with his father his reaction was immediate and negative, he violently pulled it free as he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening a bit when he realized who the person was. His name fell off his lips quietly, a painful sounding recognition. “Yata....”

“I've been looking everywhere for you!” Yata huffed as he forced Saruhiko to spin around and look at him, “what's going on? Why are you leaving...I mean, did something happen?”

“Nothing happened,” Saruhiko said defensively as he clicked his tongue. “So just go back and have fun, right? Remember when you said that?” _Remember when you told me you weren't going to abandon me here?_

“What the hell, Saruhiko?!” Yata bit back angrily as he took another step forward, leaving practically no space between them but enough for Yata to ball a fist around the collar of Saruhiko's dress shirt. “Why are you lying to me? What happened back there?”

“Why don't you go ask _Mikoto-san_ what he thinks happened?” Saruhiko snorted as a look of confusion spread across Yata's face. “I'm sure he'd tell you something so interesting you'd completely ignore everything else, right, _Misaki_?” Saruhiko couldn't help but smile, a truly twisted smile as only one thought ran through his head, _I sound just like my father, don't I?_

“Is that what this is about?” Yata frowned as he looked around them, lightly pushing Saruhiko backwards until his back hit a wall on the other side of the barren hallway. However, he kept Saruhiko's shirt clenched in his hand, as if he was afraid he'd flee the situation if he let go. Which Saruhiko couldn't blame him for, if he could leave he would. “Did you not hear what we were talking about, Saruhiko?”

“Does it really matter?” 

“It does matter...Saruhiko he was telling me that if I wanted to get a job at the fire department that I could, do you know what that means? I'd be making twice as much money as I am now, hell, even Seri was all for it!” Yata whisper yelled, it was Saruhiko's turn to look at him out of confusion. “I was listening to him because he'd be my ticket into a good paying job, that way I didn't have to rely on you so much. If you thought I was ignoring you...I'm sorry but that wasn't what I was trying to do...but I guess I did ignore you, didn't I?”

“100 points, Misaki,” Saruhiko laughed as he tilted his head back until it hit the wallpaper behind him.

“You'd leave...just because you thought I wasn't paying attention to you?” Yata asked him with a hint of disbelief.

“More or less,” Saruhiko answered honestly as the smile fell from his lips. “Doesn't help that that man tried...to...or rather did...” he shook his head. “Never mind.”

“You mean Mikoto-san?”

“0 points.”

“Munakata-san?”

“0 points.”

“Me?”

“0 points, again.”

“Then who ar-”

Before Yata could even finish his question, Saruhiko slipped out of his grasp and headed back towards the ballroom. He heard footsteps chase after him but initially disregarded it, only when Yata roughly pushed him back against the wall did he look at him again.

“Answer me, Saruhiko!”

“It's not something worth mentioning,” Saruhiko whispered- and hated himself for it, hated how small and weak he sounded and how Yata's face only continued to fall. “This is just a bad dream anyway, explaining this to you...it would be pointless.”

“A dream?”

“Yeah,” Saruhiko grunted, “a dream. Good things don't happen to me, _Yata Misaki_. This was a dream, a beautiful dream at first but it's become just another nightmare.”

“A nightmare? Why would you say that?” Yata demanded as he pressed a hand on either side of the wall where Saruhiko was standing, cornering him and preventing him from running away again. 

“Good things don't happen to people like me,” Saruhiko repeated with a warped smile. “Since day one, my life has been one cataclysm after another, Misaki. This is only going to be one, too.”

“So this dream...this is a metaphor for something too good to be true, right? All because I accidentally broke my promise?” Yata frowned as he lowered his head, sadness flooded his eyes. “Saruhiko...I knew your trust was fragile but I never expected...I didn't mean it...but...who...who hurt you, Saruhiko? To think that I would lose interest in you...that's lunacy! You're always going to be the most important person to me...because...well...you're amazing, that's why.”

“The others are cool and all but I really only listened because I wanted to help you...Munakata-san said you might have been having anxiety problems and that's when I knew something was wrong. I know this isn't your kind of thing and we can leave if you want...but we're leaving together, okay? Cause like hell am I gonna let you leave and walk away from me over something like this. I’m always gonna be your biggest advocate, Saru. I believe in you...I want you...I want you to know that.”

“Yata...” Saruhiko felt as if he had been punched in the gut. He hated to admit it, but Yata was right. He was being a fool. He had issues, he knew that much, knew he hated crowds and had fears of abandonment and everything else under the sun but hearing Niki's voice had been the icing on the cake. It wasn't fair to Yata and it was sick of him to think it was. 

If he had left, he would have been throwing away everything he wanted and worked so hard to help build. This wasn't a dream, it was reality. Reality was hard and it was cruel, and it could be a never ending nightmare if you let it but that begged the question of whether or not that's what Saruhiko wanted for himself. Almost immediately, he knew it wasn't. 

“I'm so sorry,” Saruhiko mumbled as he aloud Yata to pull him off the wall and straight into his arms, this time it was Yata who leaned against the wallpaper and him that relied on Yata for support. “I'll...explain this all to you...everything...from the beginning...but we should go back and at least try to salvage a bit of tonight, right?”

“Is that what you want to do, Saru?” Yata whispered as he rubbed his hands up and down his back soothingly, Saruhiko could only nod his head. “Our world, or rather...my world...it would be meaningless if you weren't a part of it.”

“I'm sorry,” Saruhiko repeated again as he loosened his grip on Yata, arms falling to his sides as Yata grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back so they were looking at one another. “I'm sorry for all of that.”

“For having a bit of a breakdown? Shit, Saru, if I apologized every time that ever happened then I'd run out of apologies!” Yata laughed as he reached up with one hand and brushed a few hairs out of Saruhiko's eyes. “So don't sweat it, okay? It's always gonna be you and me against the world...nothing or no one can change that.”

“Misaki...can I tell you something?” Saruhiko asked as he shook off the last bit of Yata's grip and fell back into his arms, resting his head in the crook of Yata's neck as he wrapped his arms around the smaller man's waist. When he felt two arms snake around his own he couldn't help but lean further into the touch.

“Anything, you know that you can always tell me anything.”

“I've always been like this, this is the first time...it's the first time I’ve ever had someone's attention in a way that wasn't negative. You're the first person who's ever been kind to me,” Saruhiko admitted before he could stop himself. He was vaguely aware of the fact that Yata held him a bit closer after that and that Yata's breath seemed to catch in his throat every now and again but he continued onward. Truth be told, he wanted to stop talking, wanted to go back into his own head and forget he ever said anything but he felt like Yata deserved to hear this, if only so he could understand. 

“Losing that...no, that's not it..losing you...it scares me. But I want to tell you...that you can't fix me either, I need you to understand that, understand that I have issues and that this...dealing with me...it's never going to be easy. But Yata,” Saruhiko stopped himself, biting his tongue as he continued to press into Yata's chest, anything he could to get that much closer to him. 

“It's okay, Saruhiko.” Yata coddled as he began to trace invisible pattern's into his back, “I think I get it now. I had no idea...but this...it means just as much to you as it does to me. I never want to lose you, okay? I’m always going to be here for you, no matter what. We'll find out what we need to do and we'll do...I...I...I'd do anything for you.”

Saruhiko loosed his grip enough that he could lean back into Yata's hold and stand up straight, looking down at him with a small smile on his face as his heart thumped erratically in his chest. Yata smiled up at him, eyes seeming to come to life once amber met blue.

“Our world...it might get bigger and more people might come into it...but you and I are always going to be the center of it, okay?” Yata mumbled as a slight blush crept up on his cheeks, seeing that caused Saruhiko's already acrobatic heart to speed up in his chest.

“Can I tell you something embarrassing?” Saruhiko snorted as he leaned down a bit, an action that caused the blush on Yata's cheeks to spread. 

“Y-yeah.”

“Is it bad...that I want to be the center of your world?”

At that moment it was like the pieces clicked together for both of them, and though it had taken a lot of negative to finally see the light it was something Saruhiko felt was worth it. He had been a fool tonight, an utterly jealous fool who feared losing something that he knew he'd never lose. He couldn't really blame himself for it, considering it was the first time he had ever felt such a way about someone else but it didn't excuse it either. 

He wasn't interested in some half-hearted thing, he knew that other people would always be around, sure, but since he felt as if he only needed Yata he had expected him to feel the same way. He supposed it was foolish of him to do so, hell, he knew it was and he regretted ever thinking that way. Just because he had issues didn't mean it was Yata's job to accommodate them. He needed constant reassurance, needed to know that he was wanted and acknowledged or he feared abandonment. 

Explaining that to Yata, was going to be hard, of that much he was sure- because how does one exactly explain that they were horrifically hurt their entire lives and thought they held no worth on their own? But somehow, some way, he was sure that if he told Yata in a way that he could understand that he'd do whatever he could to actually _understand_ it. That wasn't because Yata was a good person- which he was- or because Yata needed him- which he did- but it was because of something else. Something else that neither had wanted to admit to before that very moment.

“Only if I can be the center of yours, too.” Yata responded with a dark blush and a small nod of his head, the smile on his lips growing wider as he gradually shifted his weight to the tip of his toes and he began to work on closing that small distance between them, too.

“These metaphors for things that are too good to be true...well perhaps they were wrong. Sometimes reality can be better than any dream,” Saruhiko answered honestly as he tightly wrapped his arms around Yata's waist once again, readjusting his grip. “And this metaphor...this world of ours...do you know what that is?”

“I've always known,” Yata admitted as his arms traveled up around Saruhiko's neck. “This world...you and I...it's not the world I want to protect and cherish.”

“And it's not just any world that I would want to devote my time too...” Saruhiko concurred as their foreheads finally met, resting on one another as they looked into each others eyes. “That world...is really you.”

Saruhiko wasn't sure who moved first, who tilted their head first or if they did it at the same time. All he knew was the feeling of Yata's lips against his own, slightly chapped but soft, and warm. It started off slow and it was anything but a kiss from a movie scene, it was a bit awkward at first, unpracticed and foreign for both of them as they gradually decided to move their lips a bit more against each other before Saruhiko daringly slid his tongue across Yata's. Not surprisingly, Yata gasped a bit out of surprise and Saruhiko took that opportunity to deepen the kiss. 

Yata tasted of mint and something else he couldn't place in that moment, something so addicting that even after they initially parted for air that he was desperate to kiss him again. Yata moved in time with him, their lips clumsily crashing together before they found some rhythm that suited them and they could continue with. Saruhiko's senses drove him mad, that addictive taste, the arms around his neck, the way Yata's cologne smelled, and the way that their bodies slowly got closer together. Nothing more so than the way his heart slammed into his chest, his mind screaming that this- not being seen, not being a provider- had been what he secretly wanted all along.

The last time they pulled apart, Saruhiko rested his forehead against Yata's again, catching his breath as he slowly opened his eyes and gazed down into those amber colored eyes that seemed to only have him in their sight. The smile that came to his face was secondary, the way he held Yata closer was instinctive. 

“Saruhiko...uhm...how was that?” Yata mumbled out of embarrassment, his cheeks growing darker when Saruhiko reached up and tilted his chin up, their lips coming within an inch of each other once again. 

“100 points, Misaki.”


	9. Opportunities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advance if there are any spelling errors in this, I'm half asleep as I'm posting this. ^^; 
> 
> Thank you all again for all the comments and kudos, it means a lot to me! Here's part two of the Jungle party, told from Yata's perspective! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

When Yata finally managed to coax Saruhiko back into the ballroom he was a flustered mess, glancing over at Saruhiko every now and again as if he was the one in need of validation and not the other way around. 

When everything started, when Yata had first met him, he never imagined the events that would transpire after that. How he fell for Saruhiko was a blur in his mind, a blur full of Saruhiko's face and the small smiles they exchanged, the meals they shared, the kotatsu they slept under, and the kiss that sealed the deal for him. Not like he'd have it any other way. Now, with Saruhiko's hand in his and all eyes in the room on them it felt as if he was passing through a dense fog, unable to see in front of him and blindly stumbling along after his companion as they approached the place they had left- both in such a hurry. 

He felt Saruhiko guide him to a chair and realized he had pulled the seat out for him, mumbling a _thank you_ under his breath as he sat down. Raising his head enough so he could shoot the other people around them a smile as he finally came out of his daze. Though it wasn't until Saruhiko grabbed his hand again that he realized someone had begun speaking on the other end of the table.

“Good evening everyone, as you already know, I am Hisui Nagare, the creator of Jungle.” Yata glanced at him for a moment before turning to Saruhiko, catching the slight interest written on his face with a pang of unbridled jealously. Feeling like a fool for it, he turned back to face the speaker. “I know you just listened to me on the podium so I figured we could skip the rest of the formalities, considering I already know who each of you are, and jump right into the possible contract negotiation.”

“I have a question,” Reisi interjected, “what exactly is the proposal? I don't have the time to manage a gaming channel or promote things on a daily basis.”

“Ah, I’m glad you asked, Munakata-san.” Nagare smiled as he sat aside a stack of papers before picking another pile up and handing it down the table, “please take a look at this while I explain.” 

When the papers reached Yata, he immediately took one and placed it in front of Saruhiko before reaching across the table and handing them off to Mikoto. His eyes traveled down the piece of paper in front of Saruhiko until he heard Nagare begin to speak again. 

“My proposal is a gaming channel, one that each and every of the nine Kings would actively participate in on their own time. Whenever it is convenient for you, record yourself and your screen and give a run down on how you do something or do something as simple as a Q&A. As for products, as I’ve stated beforehand, we have several of the top video game creators in the world backing this as well as several makers of gaming computers and PDA's.” Nagare paused to take a breath before continuing onward. 

“The way we would get subscribers from the get go is quite simple, each Jungle user is already subscribed to our main channel that hosts basic tutorials and how to videos so we would make a sub channel from that and all regular users of Jungle would be subscribed to the gaming channel as well. We'd post on boards about it to get a viewing audience as well as send out a message to every user.”

“How many users are there in total?” Reisi- the only person who seemed to be willing to ask the questions everyone else was thinking- inquired as he folded his hands on the table and rested his head atop of them. 

“At the moment, we have 56 million users, that number has spiked by 20 million over the last four months thanks to some advertising overseas. And to answer your next question, with that many users being subscribed to us and with that kind of growth, we could expect as many as 100 million subscribers by next year. ”

“And if we don't hit that target?” Saruhiko finally spoke up as he took Yata's hand up again, the latter having been so distracted that he jumped a little when the initial contact was made. He hung his head in embarrassment as all eyes turned in their direction. 

“We will hit that target, Fushimi-san. However, that is irrelevant because I already have concrete offers from these companies...starting from this point forward, should you agree, you are all millionaires.” Nagare smiled as he rose from his seat, grabbing the last stack of papers as he walked around the table, handing them out to each designated person. “Your job is to post one video a week, the username and password are on the first sheet I gave you. This paper I’m handing out now is a contract, feel free to take a few minutes to look it over.”

Once the contract was in front of Saruhiko, Yata looked over his shoulder, reading the form in it's entirety before he spoke. 

“Wow, there's no draw back...any time you post a video you get paid that set amount via a direct deposit...” he mumbled as he rested his head on Saruhiko's shoulder- blushing slightly as he did so. 

“I'll have to set up a separate bank account though, I don't trust anyone with what money I do have,” Saruhiko whispered back in reply as he smiled down at Yata. “You won't be taking that job by the way.”

“What? Why not?” Yata quickly protested with a pout but it was reversed the moment Saruhiko's smile grew wider.

“Because I need you to help me film these videos after all, Nagare said I don't have to show my face if I don't want to but I need you to help me with the audio and whatnot.”

“You mean it?” Yata beamed as he wrapped his arms around Saruhiko's arm, “this is gonna be so much fun.”

“I suppose we could find a new apartment next month too...a really nice one...” Saruhiko's grin grew even wider as he thought things over. “We could finally build that world of ours, the real one...not the metaphoric one...that one's already been established.”

“Have I told you that you're amazing today?” Yata hummed as he squeezed Saruhiko's arm a bit tighter, nearly nuzzling him. 

“Once,” Saruhiko laughed under his breath as he reached out with his other hand and grabbed a pen off the table. “I need my arm, Misaki.”

“Sorry sorry,” Yata chuckled awkwardly as he watched his companion put pen to paper and sign his name on the dotted line. 

“Does anyone have any questions or objections?” Nagare- who had resumed his position at the head of the table- asked as he glanced at the others. When no one spoke a smile broke out on his face, “so we are all in agreement then?” When everyone gave some sort of approval that smile pressed up higher on his cheeks, “fantastic news. Please pass the contracts down to me and feel free to enjoy yourselves for the rest of the evening. That first paper is for you to keep. I will DM you the rest of the information for the channel first thing Monday morning.”

“Ready to go?” Saruhiko mumbled as he plucked the paper off the table and folded it up, stuffing it in his pants pocket as Yata watched him with inquisitive eyes. 

“Mhm, whenever you are.” Yata agreed as he stood up from his spot in time with Saruhiko, pushing in his chair politely before he spoke to the few people he knew. “It was good to see and meet you all, we're kind of tired so we're going to go upstairs. Awashima-san I'll see you on Monday?”

“See you on Monday, Yata-kun. You and Fushimi-kun have a great evening,” Seri smiled back at him.

“If you want that job just DM me,” Mikoto called out with a small grin as Reisi waved politely at them.

“Thanks, I'll keep it in mind,” Yata replied before he and Saruhiko both started out of the room. After dodging a few random J-Rank players who wanted photos with Saruhiko, they finally made it to the main hallway and finally to the elevator. Once inside, they both let out a deep sigh before looking at one another. “It's been a crazy day, I’m exhausted.”

“As am I,” Saruhiko responded as they waited for the elevator to take them to the top floor of the building. “At least we got a nice room to go to...speaking of nice things, Yata...things are about to change, for the both of us. Are you...are you sure you want to do this with me?”

“I've never been more sure of anything,” Yata hummed as the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened up, he reached out and grabbed Saruhiko's hand as he fiddled with the door key in his pocket. “I'm still gonna work at the cafe though, I want to make my own money still.”

“Fair enough, but like hell would I let you have a dangerous job like that mans,” Saruhiko sneered as he tightened his grip on Yata's hand. “About your apartment....”

“Our apartment,” Yata interrupted as he slid the key card into the door, revealing the large hotel room that had a living room, full kitchen, full bath and a separate bedroom with a king sized bed. 

“Our apartment...right...” Saruhiko smiled as he reluctantly dropped Yata's hand and began to slip off his shoes. “I...I like it...that place feels like home to me now.”

“So you're worried that you wouldn't feel at home somewhere new right?” Yata inquired as he grabbed Saruhiko's hand again and led them to their bedroom, where they both grabbed their more comfortable clothes to change into.

“Exactly.”

“Have you ever considered that maybe,” Yata began as he started to slip out of his clothes, not even bothering to go to the bathroom this time around. However, whenever Saruhiko headed towards the bathroom he found himself frowning. “That maybe it's not the building itself that makes you feel at home?”

“So you're saying that maybe it's you that feels like home to me?” Saruhiko snorted as he paused in the bathroom's doorway, “maybe so.”

“Well get changed and we'll test that theory.” Yata laughed awkwardly though he couldn't help but feel a little concerned over the fact that Saruhiko was resorting to leaving the room rather than just changing like he was.

“Yeah,” was all he got back in response before Saruhiko disappeared behind the doorway and left Yata alone to his thoughts. As he slipped out of his clothes and made himself comfortable in the newer ones he looked himself over in the mirror, wondering if maybe it was because of him that Saruhiko left the room. Finding that demoralizing, he turned away from the mirror and flopped down on the bed, turning on the flat screen TV as he sunk back into the pillows. 

A few minutes later, Saruhiko emerged from the bathroom with his clothes folded in his hands. After setting them aside he looked at Yata expectantly. 

“Lay down with me?” Yata suggested with a blush as he patted the space beside him in the center of the bed. Though Saruhiko's look didn't change a flash of uncertainly crossed his eyes before he let out a sigh and climbed up on the bed, laying only a few inches away from Yata until the latter timidly shifted closer. “Is...is it okay if I...uhm....”

“Just do it, you don't have to ask,” Saruhiko said with a click of his tongue though the fact his arm snaked around Yata a bit awkwardly counteracted that. Yata's blush grew darker as he raised his head and placed it on Saruhiko's chest, his arm wrapping around his waist as he relaxed back into his touch. 

“So...even in this hotel room are you comfortable?” Yata mumbled under his breath as he gazed up at his companion out of slight concern, when Saruhiko nodded his head he let out a small sigh. “Feels like home to you then?”

“It might as well be,” Saruhiko replied as he gazed down at him, “it's...nice.”

“Don't get me wrong, I like my crummy little apartment too sometimes,” Yata smiled as he held on to Saruhiko a bit tighter. “But...anywhere feels like home as long as you're with me...wow, how cheesy was that?”

“It was extremely cheesy,” Saruhiko shot back with a hint of amusement, “but...oddly enough...fitting.”

“Saruhiko?”

“Yeah?”

“You told me...you told me you were gonna tell me about what happened to you before we met...can you do that now?” 

The look on Saruhiko's face turned sour before it shifted into an almost hardened expression, the look in itself made Yata instantly regret asking that question but to his surprise, Saruhiko nodded his head. 

“My mother is a millionaire CEO, I never saw her and if I did it was fleeting. It wasn't just because she was always busy...but because she never wanted to be around me. She hated me from the moment I was born but her high social status made sure she kept me around for appearances sake.” At this Yata visualized his own mother, and despite the cruel things she said to him and the cold way she acted, he was glad at some point he had known her at all. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like if she had been around but outright hated him for just existing. 

“My father...if you can even call him that...is...” Saruhiko choked up, as if he was having a hard time coming to terms with what he was about to say or as if he couldn't even find a way to explain him. Yata traced patterns on his chest reassuringly, feeling his eyes sting slightly as he watched Saruhiko's face continue to fall until the life he had seen come too in his eyes began to fade away again. It was then that pieces clicked together in Yata's mind. 

From the first time he saw Saruhiko he had been struck by those ocean colored orbs, mesmerized by both their beauty and absolute coldness behind them. Seeing him now, spluttering over his words until he gave up on it all together, and remembering that look he had seen in the photos, he felt choked up himself at the realization. 

“He hurt you...didn't he?”

“Yeah,” Saruhiko answered with the most devoid tone of voice Yata had ever heard him use. 

“A lot?”

“Constantly.”

“You don't need to say anything else,” Yata whispered as the tears finally fell from his eyes and he sat up so he could look down at Saruhiko- who looked back up at him in shock. “But whatever happened to you, you didn't deserve it. You're really brave for leaving that place behind, since your parents are like that...and you were able to realize you couldn't stay in that place forever...you're just brave...you're so brave.”

“Yata...why are you crying?” Saruhiko mumbled as he propped himself up right, reaching out with a shaky hand to brush the tears away from his eyes. Truth by told, Yata didn't know why it hurt him half as much as it did but he hated it, hated that dead look that was still a shadow in Saruhiko's eyes and hated how much pain it looked like he was in every time he went to speak. 

“Because it hurts me,” Yata murmured with a slight laugh, “I want to fucking punch them.”

“You and me both,” Saruhiko sighed as he shifted so he sat behind Yata with his back to the headboard. Yata felt two arms wrap around him before they pulled him forward, he laid comfortably on against Saruhiko's chest, his own arms traveled around his waist as he turned his head to look up at his companion. 

“I'm glad you don't have to stay there anymore...your place is with me, you got it?” Yata whispered, his eyes growing heavy as the weight of the day and the conversation they had finally laid it's hold over him. 

“Yeah, I got it.”

“I mean it,” Yata mumbled as he reached back and ran a hand through Saruhiko's hair. “Nothing or no one can change that, especially not now.”

“Same goes for you,” Saruhiko snorted before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to Yata's temple. “Sleep, you're tired.”

“But you don't look comfortable,” Yata stated with a yawn as he tried to ignore the increased beat of his heart. Saruhiko's smile only made it grow worse.

“Sleep, I'm fine.”

“Goodnight, Saruhiko...” Yata hummed happily as he relaxed further back into said man's grip. 

“Goodnight Yata,” Saruhiko returned to him, and as soon as he was on the verge of sleep he heard him say something else. “And thank you...for everything....”

_This isn't something you need to thank me for...I should be the one thanking you._

0o0o0o

When Yata woke up the next morning the first thing he realized was that he was warm, warmer than he usually was, even on nights when he slept under the kotatsu. Peeling his eyes open, he found himself staring at the bathroom's door and laid out on the bed, not how he had fallen asleep. The next thing he noticed was the pair of arms that were circled around him and that that warmth he felt was really Saruhiko's body pressed gently against his own. 

Blushing, Yata turned around the best he could until he was on his other side, facing Saruhiko. Compared to the look he had seen last night, he looked...peaceful. It was a rare occasion to see him asleep, and though it might have been insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it was something that made some part of Yata happy. To see him asleep and without a worry or care in the world. 

Learning more about Saruhiko's past, as vague as it might have been, had been troubling and he knew from that that things would never be easy for him. The social problems, the seemingly bitter attitude towards most things, the self doubt, it all made sense now but even if it hadn't, Yata wouldn't have thought any less of him for it.

Getting the nerve to lean forward and kiss Saruhiko's forehead, he carefully slipped out of his hold and got to his feet. Taking one last look of his sleeping form and noting how _cute_ Saruhiko looked without his glasses and with messy hair, he crept out of the bedroom- leaving the door open- and made his way to the kitchen. They had brought a few things with them to eat so he went to the fridge and took them out, setting them on the counter before he turned the oven's burners on and pondered what he could make. 

Humming to a tune he recalled as being something his mother used to sing, he grabbed the food from the containers and placed it in the pan he had found under the stove. He was sure the hotel had room service but it seemed insincere for what he was trying to do, instead he picked up the phone and requested an empty food tray and continued his work. When the staff member dropped it off he quietly thanked them before plating the small meal he made and placing it on the tray. 

Getting one of the complimentary drinks out of the fridge, he sat it down beside the food before carrying the tray back to the bedroom and towards the bed- where Saruhiko was still peacefully sleeping. Setting the object down on the side table, he lightly shook Saruhiko until he began to stir. 

“What?” 

Chuckling at the rude sounding greeting, he handed Saruhiko his glasses as he sat down on the bed beside him. “I made you breakfast,” he informed as he watched Saruhiko peel himself off of the mattress until his back was resting against the headboard. 

“Why'd you do that?”

“I always cook for you.”

“But the hotel has room service.”

“But I wanted to do something nice for you,” Yata laughed as he found his companion retracing his very own line of thought from earlier in the morning. As he grabbed the tray and sat it in Saruhiko's lap he found himself smiling, “does it look okay?”

“It looks good,” Saruhiko reassured him as he took a drink of the water he was given before picking up the eating utensils and taking a bite of the food. A small smile pressed on his lips as he finished chewing it, “thank you....”

“Of course,” Yata hummed happily as he noticed a piece of paper with the hotel's amenities on it as he made himself comfortable beside Saruhiko. His stomach felt tied in knots and eating was the last thing on his mind, and despite the great things the hotel offered and the late check out time they had, he found himself tossing the paper back onto the night stand in favor of curling up with the other man. “So...I slept really good last night, did you?”

“Yeah,” Saruhiko answered in short as he finished up the food in front of him, when done, Yata took the tray and sat it aside. 

“Saru...can I tell you something?”

“Mhm.”

“I...you already know this...but...I really do care about you.”

The sheer confusion in Saruhiko's face made him bite his tongue out of regret before he settled for staring down at his hands. Wondering if after sleeping that night if Saruhiko had begun to think otherwise or feel something different for him. He found it ironic, that while Saruhiko had every reason in the world to actually have these problems that he was the one who needed constant reassurance and validation. 

He wondered if the things he had been through constituted any sort of problems of his own, if it was unfair that he felt so useless without Saruhiko or his approval when really he should have been the rock that Saruhiko so obviously needed. The things he lost, Saruhiko never had to begin with. Something about that made Yata feel selfish.

“I know you do...I care about you too, Misaki.”

Hearing this, Yata's eyes snapped open and he redirected his attention away from his hands and back towards the speaker. Saruhiko was looking at him with a bit of concern but any doubt Yata had melted away, and along with it, Saruhiko's expression softened. 

“Can you...tell me what I mean to you?” Yata found himself asking before he could stop himself, seeing the slight twinge of happiness in Saruhiko's eyes caused his lips to twitch upwards again.

“Everything, isn't that obvious at this point?” 

“I just needed to hear you say it again...to make sure you hadn't changed your mind about me,” Yata admitted as he shifted so his head was on Saruhiko's shoulder. “I guess I just find myself wondering how someone like you could ever want to be with someone like me.”

“Does one really need to explain that kind of thing?” Saruhiko began as he wrapped his arm around him, bringing them that much closer together. “It's easy...you're the only interesting person to me and you're the only person I care about.”

“Saru, about yesterday,” Yata mumbled as he redirected the conversation. “I meant every word of what I said, but the things I didn't tell you...well...knowing what I know now, I want to protect you even more. This is the first thing I’ve had that means something to me, your missing a part of yourself and I’m missing a part of myself, but somehow...with you...it's like I know what I’m missing and I find it again.” He took a deep breath before continuing.

“Everything used to be too much for me, but then I met you and everything started making sense again. I neglected myself and hid myself from my problems but because of you...I got my life back. I got a new life even...and I want you to always be a part of that so please...don't ever try to run away like that again.” Yata paused as he remembered the hurt from that moment, how devastated he had been and how helpless he had felt when Saruhiko had slipped out from his grasp.

“I wasn't running away willingly,” Saruhiko replied in a hushed tone of voice, “I thought you had left so...I didn't see a reason to stay.”

“Hey,” Yata called out as he reached up and placed a hand on the side of Saruhiko's face, “I get it, but I’m not going anywhere so you better get used to it, okay? You scared me to death, if I had been just a minute later then you would have been gone....”

“I'm sorry, Misaki.”

“No, don't be.” Yata clarified as he leaned up a little bit, bringing their faces closer together. “You're here now, that's more important.... I know that we've got a long road ahead of us and that you and I both have our demons to fight, but it's gonna be okay, right? We're gonna get through this and face everything...together.”

“Together,” Saruhiko repeated with a small smile but something akin to doubt danced in his eyes. It hurt Yata in a way but he knew that Saruhiko's trust couldn't be completely gained over night, or over the course of a month. He had no intentions of going anywhere so he felt as if proving himself would just come naturally. 

At some point in the moments that passed after that, Yata leaned in closer until Saruhiko closed the rest of the distance between them. It wasn't like their kiss from last night in the sense that this one wasn't heated but rather it was meaningful yet brief. And yet, both times were equal in Yata's mind. Everything else went blank, his senses heightened as soon as the contact was made and dulled the moment they drifted apart. Saruhiko kept his forehead pressed against his until Yata finally broke the silence.

“Ready to go home?”

Saruhiko leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss on his lips again before he gave his answer.

“I'm already there, aren't I?”

This time it was Yata who initiated the kiss.


	10. Throne

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the continued support on this fic, and I apologize that it's so late. Have one last fluffy chapter (with minor angst because that's a given) before we start to delve more into the good stuff. :b

_”I've never had to say this sort of thing to anyone before,” Saruhiko admitted as he glanced down at his shoe laces._

_“You don't have to say it,” Misaki hummed as he stepped forward and grabbed his hand. “I think I know what you want to say...if it's what I want to say too.”_

_“So...you want that too, huh?” Saruhiko snickered as he grabbed Yata's hand in his own, smiling to himself when their fingers laced together._

_“Mhm, I-I'm all yours, okay?” Yata stammered and it was only then that Saruhiko had the courage to look at him. “That's what you wanted to ask, right?”_

_“Yeah,” Saruhiko agreed as he took Yata's hand and pulled him forward until he was in his arms, he rested his head on Yata's shoulder as he laced his arms around his waist. “Something like that, yeah.”_

_“I'm happy,” Misaki mumbled into his ear, his arms going around Saruhiko's neck as he relaxed into his hold. “Are you?”_

_“Yeah,” Saruhiko confessed, the brightest smile he had ever had continued to pull up on his lips and for a moment, he forgot all of his other problems. “Yeah, I am.”_

\- -

“3,000,000 yen for two weeks worth of videos,” Saruhiko snorted as he checked his bank account for easily the hundredth time that week- still not believing what was before his eyes. “Eh, Misaki? Give me the bills so I can pay them.”

“Sure,” Yata hummed as he leapt up from his seat on the couch and went to the kitchen, coming back with the envelopes in his hand. “I can't believe you're getting paid that much, this is the definition of surreal.”

“Tell me about it,” Saruhiko chuckled as he slipped the first bill out of it's paper confinement. “Did I mention that we're getting the three newest gaming platforms in the mail this week? Along with a shipment of games nonetheless.”

“You're serious?” Yata beamed at him as he flopped down back on the couch, laying his head on Saruhiko's shoulder in the process. “Having a famous boyfriend has it's perks! Did you check the hit counter on your videos?”

“Yeah, it was over six million for the second and eleven million for the first, the comments are entertaining to say the least.”

“Why? Is everyone freaking out because they finally get to hear the famous Fushimi Saruhiko speak?”

“Something like that,” Saruhiko chimed as he paid their rent and the subsequent bills for the apartment. “Oi, by the way, what would you think of staying in this apartment?”

“You don't want something...I don't know...nicer?” Yata mumbled as he glanced up at his companion.

“Not really, we could just fix this place up, it's in a good location anyway because your work is so close by.” Saruhiko replied as he glanced up from his laptop, looking around the room with a small smile. “With a little work, this could be a nice apartment.”

“I do kind of like that everything is in one space,” Yata agreed as he mulled it over. “Besides, I’ve been here for five years now...not being here would be a big adjustment. If you want to keep it then that's fine with me! But Saru...you are going to let me take care of some of the bills, right?”

“There's no point in it, Misaki. You help me with the videos so that money is just as much yours as it is mine as far as I’m concerned.” Saruhiko murmured as he glanced downward at Yata, “take that money and buy yourself some new clothes.”

“But tomorrow is Christmas and you got me a ton of stuff,” Yata whined as he pointed over at their newly bought tree- along with the huge stack of presents that were under it.

“Don't act like you didn't blow your paycheck on me,” Saruhiko smirked as he point a thumb in the tree's direction- and the equally high pile of things under it for him. 

“It's been a long time since I’ve done anything for Christmas,” Yata confessed with a disappointed expression. “I wanted to make sure you had a good holiday...obviously you wanted to do the same for me.” At this Saruhiko could only shake his head in defeat. “Oh wait, Saru! Do you remember Kamamoto, the guy I told you about?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“Well, I haven't seen him in awhile so would you maybe mind if I invited him over for dinner tonight? I'll cook and everything,” Yata grinned as he lightly tugged on his sleeve, “pleaseeeee.”

“Stop begging,” Saruhiko scolded though it lacked any real venom, “I guess I don't see why not.”

“Really? Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Yata exclaimed happily as he leaned forward and bravely kissed Saruhiko's cheek before hopping off of the couch with his phone in his hand. Going into the kitchen a moment later as he rambled off his invitation to Kamamoto. Before Saruhiko could even shake his head at his antics, his Jungle account lit up with a notification.

**Munakata Reisi: Hello Fushimi-kun, I hope you are enjoying your holiday. Suoh and I would like to wish you and Yata-kun a Merry Christmas.**

Pursing his lips and raising an eyebrow at the strange message that seemed to come out of the blue, Saruhiko's fingers froze over the keyboard as he waited for another message to come through- knowing that likely wasn't all the other King player wanted. Sure enough, the chat bubble began to bounce around once again. 

**Munakata Reisi: Additionally, your videos were extremely informative and well narrated, I applaud you for them. Speaking of which, Suoh and I are hosting a small get together on New Years Eve and would like for you and Yata-kun to attend. I do apologize for all the additions, but there is one more thing I would like to ask of you. Would you be interested in recording a King vs King video against me?**

**Munakata Reisi: I propose we play through the top ten games, winner takes 50,000 Jungle Points. I’ve invested in a nice set up with two separate computers side by side for Suoh and I so we could use those, Suoh and Yata-kun could help us with the filming as well. I spoke with Nagare, he said a video like this that lasts at least twenty minutes could net us both 4,000,000 yen. Not bad for a days work. What do you think?**

_I think I'm going to buy this apartment from the landlord within the month at this rate._ Saruhiko mused as he did the math in his head, to be fair, he had almost always had a lot of money. It was the one thing his mother provided in abundance for him in exchange for her lack of affection- not like he minded. But now that he was the one in sole charge of all of his funds, he found it a bit strange- albeit a bit maddening. _What am I going to do with this kind of money?_

Shaking his head, he quickly typed out his reply- keeping it polite for the sheer fact that Reisi had been his saving grace the day they met, if Saruhiko hadn't gotten out of that ballroom things could have wound up very differently. Which was something he was thankful wasn't the case, even now, as his fingers furiously hit the keys he couldn't stop himself from smiling. The prospect of stability- hell, this surpassed stability- and the chance to have his own life had not been something he took for granted over the last two weeks. 

Hearing Yata's voice from the kitchen only justified that further. 

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Merry Christmas to you all as well, and thanks, I suppose. I will admit, it's a bit weird to film myself but my identity was given away the moment I went to that damn gala- but I digress. New Years? I don't think we have anything going on, who exactly do you plan on inviting? As for the video, I don't see why not. Taking your Jungle points and earning what some people make in a year in a few hours isn't bad at all. I accept.**

**Munakata Reisi: Ah, who knew you were such an optimist? Do not underestimate me, Fushimi-kun. I believe I've beaten you once before, after all. As for the New Years party, it would be Suoh and I, a few of his friends- one of which you remember as Kusanagi-san, surely-, Awashima-kun, and perhaps a few others. No more than ten, that's for certain.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: That should be fine then, and taunting me is only going to make me more determined to beat you, you know....**

**Munakata Reisi: That is the point, Fushimi-kun. I want to battle you at your best, and may the best player win. Speaking of Jungle, how is Yata-kun progressing? I believe he mentioned that he wanted to become a King himself.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: He's...well...Misaki. He achieved U-Rank this week and has been over the moon about it, but he still has a long way to go. I don't think he realized what he was getting into.**

**Munakata Reisi: Not everyone can be a King, that's why there are only nine of us out of x amount of players. Kotosaka doesn't make things any easier for players wishing to join our ranks either, but as they say, to be the best you have to beat the best. From what Suoh and I gathered from him he seems to have the eagerness and drive to do it, he just needs to do it.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: Speaking of which, aren't you the police captain? And Suoh Mikoto is the fire chief? How do you all have time to manage that and Jungle?**

**Munakata Reisi: We were beta-testers, we went to school with Hisui Nagare so we were on the sight six months before it officially launched. By that time, Suoh and I had both had enough points to attempt to beat Kotosaka and from there it just kind of happened. To be honest, I don't have time (Suoh is the one who gets to sleep between calls and avoid most of the paperwork) but I make it work.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: So you all played the computer to gain points...?**

**Munakata Reisi: Indeed.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: The COM only gives you five points for winning a game...how long did that take you all to complete?**

**Munakata Reisi: It was a dark time in my life, in which I never left my office and I am slightly ashamed of it.**

Saruhiko couldn't help but laugh, which in turn earned him a confused stare from Yata but he only waved it off. 

**Munakata Reisi: Speaking of police work, you're quite intelligent, Fushimi-kun. Would you perhaps be interested in working for our Central Intelligence Agency? You'd have to go through the academy first of course.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: The academy? I'll pass.**

**Munakata Reisi: And if I had that...let's just say, waived for you, would you be interested then?**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: You'd wave the rules just so I could join?**

**Munakata Reisi: Yes, sometimes one has to take a gamble and with your level of intellect, I feel as if it would be worth it.**

**Fushimi Saruhiko: I'll think about it.**

**Munakata Reisi: Of course, I must go for now but do mull it over, if you would. Have a great holiday and I will contact you shortly with details of the party scheduled for the 31st.**

**_Munakata Reisi has logged out!_ **

“What a strange guy,” Saruhiko chuckled as he closed his laptop, sitting it on the coffee table as he peeled himself off of the couch. Slouching his way into the kitchen in time to see Yata hang up the phone, a small smile on his face. “Is he coming over?”

“No, he's a bit busy today sadly. But he said he'd come over the day after Christmas so that works, too. Looks like it's just you and me tonight,” Yata blushed as he looked at the food he had set out on the counter. “So, what were you in there laughing about?”

“Munakata Reisi wants us to come to a party on New Years Eve, I went ahead and said yes because I figured you'd want to go.”

“Saruhiko, you didn't have to do that,” Yata pouted as he watched the former hop up onto the counter top beside the food. “But that was funny to you?”

“Not that,” Saruhiko sighed as he grabbed Yata by the arm and led him around his legs, when Yata was between them he pulled him in for a hug. “He wants to film a King vs King video with me, by the way, but the funniest thing was the fact that he's just so...eccentric.”

“So he's not as hard up as he seems?” Yata mumbled as he raised his head a little, resting it against his companion's torso. 

“Apparently not, he wants me to work for the police.” Saruhiko snickered as he glanced down at the food on the counter next to him. “I don't need the money obviously, but it might be something to pass the time.”

“Then I want to be a fire fighter!”

“You'd be roasted alive on your first call, Misaki.”

“Would not!”

“Suoh Mikoto would bring you back with a _barbeque_ label over your body bag.”

“That's just cruel, Saru.”

“Life is cruel, Misaki.” Saruhiko laughed as he glanced down at his now giggling boyfriend, he didn't even hesitate to lean down, resting their foreheads together. “Why don't we just stay who we are and live effortlessly? There's no need to make things complicated or risk our lives.”

“You do have a point,” Yata sighed as he secured his arms around his boyfriend's neck. “It's funny isn't it? How fast things can change...that is.”

“Everything can change in a second,” Saruhiko concurred as he wrapped his arms tightly around Yata. “Life doesn't stop for anyone.”

“Good or bad, you just have to take whats come at you, right?” Yata giggled as he tucked a piece of hair behind Saruhiko's ear. “Let me be the first one to say...I'm glad life changed this time around, all the bad was so worth this high, I hope things can be like this forever.”

“You know saying things like that is bad luck,” Saruhiko deadpanned though his lips twisted upwards, “knock on wood, eh?”

“I don't think that's necessary, I'm not letting you slip away from me, or any of this for that matter.” Yata beamed up at him, “it's my job, remember? To protect this place and you.”

“Right,” Saruhiko snickered as he titled his head to the side, his lips barely brushing against Yata's. “I suppose I’ve already built it, let's just maintain it.”

“Mhm...hey, I just wanna tell you...that no matter what, I’ve got your back, okay? We joked about taking over the world but now it's kind of like we actually have, you know? But I knew you when you were just Fushimi Saruhiko and to me that's all you're ever going to be, the same Fushimi Saruhiko I met all those weeks ago.” 

“Are you insinuating that you think money is going to change us somehow?”

“Not at all,” Yata sighed as he lightly pushed on Saruhiko's chest, pushing his face away as a result. “Well...if I'm honest, I'm stressing out about something else entirely but...”

“But?” 

“But...I mean...” Yata bit his lip, shaking his head slightly as he walked towards the living room. Saruhiko didn't hesitate, jumping off the counter he followed after him- trying to mask the hurt on his face though it seemed futile. He was only thankful that Yata wasn't looking. 

“Misaki?”

“What am I so afraid of?” Yata laughed, though the sound was nothing more than painful sounding to Saruhiko- as if Yata didn't even know what he was trying to express, or more importantly, what he was feeling. 

“Was...was it something I said?” Saruhiko mumbled as he nervously clawed at his chest, watching the way Yata's back shook- until he realized that he was shivering all over. 

“No, it's nothing like that.”

“Did I...do something wrong?”

“No...you didn't, you haven't done anything wrong.... I'm ruining Christmas Eve,” Yata mumbled the last part aloud, though it seemed as if he had meant to keep those words internalized, “I'm sorry.”

“Do you think I care about this stupid holiday?” Saruhiko snorted as he tentatively took a step forward, “I've never celebrated it before anyway, you can't ruin something that I don't even like.” 

Though it was subtle, Yata tensed. 

“Saruhiko...I'm tired of dancing around this, so I’m just going to come out and say it.”

This time, it was Saruhiko who froze- as if he was suddenly rooted to the spot and unable to do anything other than breathe. Yata never once turned to look at him and that did nothing but fuel his anxiety, made him wonder what kind of expression Yata was so intent on hiding from him- wondered if it was his way of trying to protect him or if it was something else entirely. That tone of voice- serious and concerned- made him unsettled.

“I don't even know how to tell you this....”

Saruhiko didn't make a sound, only continued to stare at Yata's back and long to reach out to him, to get him to turn around. Slowly it hit him, and he was back to who he was two months ago. A person in the background who was not allowed to have anything to cherish without it being crushed before his eyes, Saruhiko didn't even realize he was shaking. 

_Please, look at me._

“Misaki....”

“I'm afraid to say it.”

_I'm afraid to hear it._

“Just tell me,” Saruhiko whispered, his tone of voice dropping back down to the level it had all that time ago. His anxiety was running rampant at this point, fearing that what Yata had to say would be something along the line of _I've decided I don't care about you at all_ or _you're not worth my time_. He found himself grinning at that thought, of how utterly helpless he was, about how he was such a slave to abandonment that it had him on edge like this. 

“Promise me you won't hate me?”

“I promise,” Saruhiko mumbled weakly, feeling the tenseness in his body shift until he was slumped over, barely having the energy to stand on his feet. 

_Everything would be worthless without you, what's the point of building up something great if you're in it alone?_

“I-I...I th-think I'm f-falling in...uhm...l-love with...you.”

“What?” Saruhiko breathed out, standing upright again as he stared at Yata's frame, wondering how his brain had deceived him from the clues before. He looked nervous on his feet, occasionally shifting his weight around as his hands would clench into fists then unclench, how the shakiness was a dead give away. 

“You heard me!” Yata huffed as he finally turned around- and it took everything Saruhiko had in his being to register the look on his face. The way his cheeks were dark pink and his eyes were bleary, the way his eyes flitted to him nervously then fell on the floor, almost as if he regretted saying it. “D-don't make me repeat it!”

“Is that what all of this is about?” Saruhiko sighed as relief finally washed over him, his anxiety giving him a rain check as he took a few small steps forward. “Something that obvious Misaki...I thought this was a given.”

“You did?” Yata all but gawked at him as he seemed to regain some of his composure, this time, Saruhiko couldn't help but smile.

“Uh-huh, do you really think I'd want to be with you if it was anything other than that?” Saruhiko took another step forward until Yata was within an arms length from him. “Here I was...thinking you were about to tell me something completely opposite....”

“You thought I was going to tell you I changed my mind about us?” Yata said with a hint of surprise as he closed the rest of the distance between them, laying his head directly over Saruhiko's heart- which he was sure was beating erratically. “Why would think that?”

“You didn't exactly give me any positive indicators when you pushed me away and stormed in here,” Saruhiko pointed out with a click of his tongue.

“I'm dense, okay? I don't do the whole subtle emotions thing and it was either cry or walk away and I chose the latter, I had no idea we had already come to this conclusion.” Yata admitted with a slight blush as Saruhiko wrapped his arms around him. “If you think I'd give up on you then you've lost your mind, you hear me?”

“Ah,” Saruhiko snorted as he sighed out of relief, resting his head atop of Yata's to help quell the raging emotions that still lingered in his mind. He added his anxiety to the list of things he needed to work on- which was previously an abandoned list, but now, he felt like he had some motivation to do it. As if it would make dealing with his new life easier, and in all reality, he knew it would. 

“I didn't mean to scare you like that,” Yata laughed awkwardly. “Maybe I should get started on dinner, how's that sound? I'll even make sure I put no veggies in it, my way of saying sorry.”

“Before you do that,” Saruhiko smirked as he led him to the couch, taking a seat in the middle before he urged Yata down next to him, when they were both comfortable- with Yata resting his head on his shoulder and their arms around one another- he asked something he had never considered knowing before. “I want to know how you felt this entire time, how it all started for you.”

“From the beginning?” 

“Yeah, from the beginning.”

The smile he got as a result was enough to shake away any fear or doubt Saruhiko had left in that moment, when Yata spoke, he felt calm- and for the first time in a long time, he felt at ease.

“Well...it all began when I saw this post about you.”

\- -

“I still can't believe you got me that much,” Yata laughed as he flopped down on the couch next to Saruhiko. Cheesy Christmas music rolled on in the background as they both stared ahead at the lit up Christmas tree and the mountain of clothes and other things that they opened that day. 

“Like you didn't get me a ridiculous amount of things either,” Saruhiko mumbled as he rested his head atop of Yata's. “So this is what Christmas is supposed to be like.”

“Mhm,” Yata hummed as he leaned in closer to him, “it's been a long time since I’ve celebrated it, I guess I forgot how nice it could be.”

“It is nice,” Saruhiko agreed as he managed to reach towards the table and grab his laptop, “I want to show you something, I didn't order it until last night so it will be awhile before it all gets here.”

“Oh?” Yata exclaimed as he watched Saruhiko pull up a few tabs on the laptop screen, his eyes widened a bit when Saruhiko smirked back at him. “Whoa, you bought all of that?”

“Yeah, it wasn't that expensive,” Saruhiko shrugged as he scrolled through page after page of items, mainly new furnishing for their apartment- including a new queen sized bed and new couches. “Do you like it all?”

“It's amazing,” Yata murmured as he leaned in a bit closer, “wait, you paid 1,000,000 yen for all of this?!”

“That was just leftover from Christmas and after we paid this months bills,” Saruhiko breathed out, “the video I'm doing with Reisi is worth 4,000,000 apparently.”

“Whoa, that much?” Yata gawked as he turned to look at his companion, “okay, so I know what I’m doing with my time off from work.”

“What's that?”

“My new goal is to be a King by the end of February, when I'm not working or helping you with the videos I’m going to be getting points and practicing. We could take over the world if I made that much money too,” Yata laughed when Saruhiko shook his head. “Here, look at my account and tell me how I'm doing.”

“Fine fine,” Saruhiko sighed as he handed Yata the laptop, watching him log onto Jungle and go to his profile.

**Name: Yata  
Age: 19  
Location: Shizume Town, Tokyo, Japan  
Occupation: …still working on that one!  
Hobbies: Skateboarding, listening to music, and running.  
Jungle Rank: U  
Player Rank: 6,098,376  
Friends: 246**

“You've moved up the player rank by nearly six million,” Saruhiko commented as he reached over and scrolled up to the top, looking at the point counter. “How do you have 750,000 points already?”

“I've been playing a few J-Rank players on that game you showed me awhile ago,” Yata chuckled as he pointed at the number, “one of them played me for 10,000 points and lost and kept re-challenging me so I kept taking his points until he fell back to a U-Rank. Pretty funny stuff actually. If I get 50,000 more points I move up to J-rank.”

“Well I think February might be pushing it, but you're definitely on your way,” Saruhiko said with a slight smile. “I didn't know you were still so serious about this.”

“Of course I am,” Misaki grinned as he went to Jungle's homepage, it was then that he and Saruhiko both noticed something rather odd. “Whoa, Saru, you're only a thousand points away from being the fifth rank!”

“Give me the laptop,” Saruhiko smirked as Yata did as instructed, once in his hands he logged onto his own account and immediately pulled up J-Cube, sending out a challenge to whomever was playing. Within an instant, someone accepted. A round for one thousand points. 

“Kick his ass,” Yata cheered on as he leaned back on his shoulder, watching as the screen flashed for a few seconds before the game began. As expected, Saruhiko beat the player before they could even complete three sides. “You did it!”

“It wasn't that hard,” Saruhiko countered as he challenged the player again, smirking when they accepted. “I'm just gonna do this for a few minutes until the gap between the old number five and I is too monumental for him to recover. He plays too many gambling games, he's lost quite a few points as of late.”

“You'd think the site would make a big deal out of a change of status, even amongst Kings.” Yata pondered aloud as he watched the screen change again and again, each time Saruhiko came out on top as the winner. No matter who his opponent was. 

“Once I quit this session it will,” Saruhiko answered though he didn't look up from his screen, when no one else accepted his request he hit the **CASH OUT** button on the top right hand side of the display. Grinning when the text on the screen changed. **19,000 Jungle Points have been added to your account. You now have a total of 2,250,565 points.**

**Iwafune Tenkei has accepted your challenge for the Number 5 spot, good luck, King!”**

“Holy shit!” Yata giggled as he bounced back and forth in his seat, “I know I probably tell you this too much, but you're seriously the coolest person I know, Saruhiko.”

Saruhiko smiled back at him, “now all that's left is to beat him.”

“You got this,” Yata grinned as he excitedly leaned in closer to the screen, watching as the J-Cube screen turned into the same kind of one he had seen when Saruhiko and Nagare had faced off. Before the round began, he kissed Saruhiko's cheek, a heavy blush on his face when Saruhiko looked down at him. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Saruhiko smirked as he turned back to the screen, in an instant, the game had begun. Iwafune was fast, almost keeping up with him, but on the third turn of the cube, Saruhiko noticed a rather easy pattern in the blocks and took advantage of it. Turning the cube and only sliding it over seven times, his was completed. The game was won in a matter of eight seconds. 

**CONGRATS! CONGRATS! YOU HAVE DETHRONED IWAFUNE TENKEI FOR THE NUMBER FIVE SPOT.**

“You did it!” Yata exclaimed out of joy as he threw his arms around Saruhiko, “I'm proud of you!”

“It was easy,” Saruhiko snorted as he reloaded the homepage, trying to ignore the heat rising to his cheeks the longer Yata coddled him. When the homepage loaded again, he couldn't help but smile at the banner that ran across the screen.

**ATTENTION: Congratulations to Fushimi Saruhiko for achieving the fifth spot on Jungle's King list. -Hisui Nagare.**

Even the leader board brought a smile to his face, seeing himself a spot higher than he was previously. It was then that his inbox began lighting up with notifications, mainly those from the other Kings as they congratulated him and wished him a good holiday, all of which he responded to for reasons he didn't fathom. 

“I am proud of you, you know...” Yata hummed as he glanced up at him, their faces only inches apart before Saruhiko leaned down the rest of the way, placing a chaste kiss on Yata's lips before they parted once again.

“Thank you,” Saruhiko smiled as he glanced back down at his screen, his eyes widening when a new message popped up on the screen. 

**Niki: Congrats, my little Monkey. o(*.*)o**

Without even thinking, he slammed the laptop shut. 

“Is everything okay?” Yata mumbled, the concern in his voice apparent. Saruhiko smiled back at him nervously.

“Fine, everything is fine.”


	11. Lady Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all again for all the comments and kudos. T-T They seriously make me so happy and to know this story has such great support is amazing, just thank you! 
> 
> Prepare for doting boyfriends, overconfident video gamers, bragging rights for the future, and a bit of angst towards the end. A bit. Not a lot. I promise. 
> 
> Enjoy!~

“Hello and thank you for joining us, I'm Jungle's fourth King, Munakata Reisi....”

“And I'm Jungle's Fifth King, Fushimi Saruhiko....”

“Today we will be doing a King vs. King play through,” Reisi smiled as he adjusted his headset, “we'd like to thank Jungle and their sponsors for promoting this video and we'd also like to thank Jungle's third King, Suoh Mikoto and Yata Misaki for helping us film and edit this video.”

“So professional,” Yata mumbled as he and Suoh sat in Reisi's office and began filtering through the video streaming to them from the other room. 

“He's always like that,” Mikoto grunted as he puffed on his cigarette, “Fushimi looks thrilled.”

“That's just his face,” Yata laughed as he stared at his boyfriend on screen, heavily annoyed expression and all. “Believe it or not, he seemed a bit excited to come here.”

“Is that so?” Mikoto snorted as he clicked a few buttons on the laptop, deleting a certain area of the footage that got repeated. “Munakata wouldn't stop talking about how wonderful this would be.”

“It makes me wonder who's going to win,” Yata hummed as he watched their point tallies come up on the screen. “Saruhiko gathered an extra fifty thousand points just in case he lost, but he seems pretty confident.”

“The only reason I’m in front of Munakata is because I have more down time than he does,” Mikoto muttered as turned the volume on the video down. “Confident or not, Munakata isn't an easy opponent.”

“We'll this should be all the more interesting then,” Yata smiled he averted his attention back to the display. “Are they playing the top ten list games?”

“Ah.”

“Well, here they go then,” Yata said with a hint of excitement in his voice, “J-Cube is first, this should be Saruhiko's win.”

Mikoto only smirked in response. 

The moment the J-Cube screens stopped flashing the two cubes on either side of the display moved at an incredibly fast pace, each making a few short turns and clicking certain sides into places before they were both complete, the screen cracked with lightning as it calculated who the winner was.

**Fushimi Saruhiko's Time: 7.14 seconds**

**Munakata Reisi's Time: 7.16 seconds**

**Fushimi Saruhiko wins!**

“That was so close,” Yata gasped as he turned to glance over at Suoh- who looked a bit smug as he stared at the screen.

“Told you not to underestimate him,” Mikoto smirked as he leaned back in his chair. “Munakata's a bit of a stick in the mud but he's good at what he does.”

“Is that what you like about him?” Yata teased with a sly grin as Mikoto chuckled and nodded his head.

“Something like that, yeah. The Gambler is up next, this could be anyone's game, it just relies on luck.”

“Hm,” Yata hummed in agreement he watched two dice pop up on the screen. From what he recalled, a set number would appear on the screen and the players would have to throw two dice and try to time it where it would land on two numbers that would form the sum, definitely a game of luck and timing. Saruhiko claimed to hate that game more than any of the others. 

**Your number to match is 6!** The screen read as two dice appeared on either side of the screen, the two King players rolled at the same time. Saruhiko's coming up as a total of eight while Reisi's total was seven, making him the winner for coming the closest to the number. 

“One all, the next game is one of my favorites,” Mikoto snickered as Me vs. Everyone popped up on the screen. The goal was simple, shoot the people trying to kill you and navigate to the other side of the virtual street, if Yata remember correctly, Suoh held the record for that game as well. 

The moment the game started on the split screen, Yata was amazed at how many people jumped out from behind the virtual buildings and out from trashcans to attempt to gun down the player, somehow, they both managed to cross the finish line, Saruhiko falling just a bit short as Reisi took the win for that one as well.

“Did you help him with that one?” Yata seethed as he glanced over at Mikoto- who was chuckling at the look of accomplishment on Munakata's face.

“Maybe,” Suoh answered with a brilliant grin, “he's so proud of himself.”

“Saruhiko looks furious,” Yata said nervously as he noticed the determined stare in the gamer's eyes, “maybe because Reisi's game is coming up next?”

“Puzzle Master? Fushimi doesn't stand a chance.”

And sure enough, the small puzzle on Munakata's display was completed before Saruhiko could finish his. Total score as of now, Saruhiko: 1 and Reisi: 3.

“Spirit Smasher is next, Saruhiko should be good at this, he's good at crushing people's spirit, he does that every time he plays someone on Jungle.” Yata joked as he let out a sigh, “I'm sure he'll win this one.”

The screen in front of his went dark as ghosts danced around an urn on the center of the display as the game title wrote itself out above it. The synopsis was simple, break as many urns as you can until you break five that have ghosts in them. Before the game started you'd get a preview of which ones held the spirits but it was fleeting, Yata didn't even see any of them before the game began and twenty urns filled up the screen.

Despite the earlier results, Saruhiko came out victorious on that game, netting all five with no mistakes while Munakata got all five and made one mistake. Both of them finished the game within fifteen seconds, but during that time, Yata had been staring blankly at the screen trying to guess where any of them could be before the King players revealed them. He turned to Suoh with a look of disbelief on his face, “being a King...you have to be pretty skilled to do that.”

“Why do you think there's so few of us?” Mikoto smirked as he looked in Yata's direction, “just practice...you'll get there.”

“I don't know about that,” Yata laughed as he scratched the back of his head. “I guess I never really gave you all enough credit, this stuff isn't easy and you have to have some serious brain power to remember all of that, especially under pressure.”

“Watch,” Mikoto instructed as he pointed at Yata's screen, “there's a trick to all of these games or at least some sort of way you can use to beat them. The Creator is basically like Tetris except the pieces fall much quicker, the piece that goes on the left side always falls first and the piece that goes on the bottom falls after that, after that it's just a matter of filling in the blank spaces.”

“Really?” Yata gawked as he watched a long bar fall on Saruhiko's screen- which he placed on the left- and a jagged piece fell next which promptly went to the bottom. As the pieces fell in quick succession, he verbally called out to where each piece would belong, smiling when the puzzle was complete and he got all the answers correct- despite the fact Saruhiko was just a bit slower than Reisi on that game.

“See? It's not hard if you know the tricks,” Mikoto smirked as he leaned back in his chair, “still, most people can't do that, you're not half bad, kid.”

“T-thank you,” Yata blushed as he turned his attention back to the center screen in front of them, watching as Saruhiko's annoyed face grew even more sour. “Wow, Saru needs to win something or he's gonna lose...”

“Destroy & Rebuild is a game Munakata sucks at, Fushimi will win it.”

Yata shook his head slightly as he stared at the start up screen for the game, watching as a shape popped up on the screen then shattered, making the players piece it together again. Sure enough, Saruhiko won with time to spare as Munakata finished his piece up with an unamused expression on his face.

“0 to 60 is a game Saru likes,” Yata mumbled aloud as he watched two cars pull up at the starting line on the screen. When they both took off the line towards the end of the track, Saruhiko picked up a booster item and sailed past Reisi's car, leaving him two car lengths behind him the moment he crossed the finish line- eleven seconds after starting, Reisi clocking fourteen.

“There we go,” Mikoto snorted as he glanced over at his companion, “it's gonna be interesting in the final stretch here.”

“4 all, two games to play...it could go either way.” Yata agreed as he spun in his chair slightly. “When do you want to edit the audio and add the graphics in?”

“We can do that later today if you want,” Mikoto suggested with a noncommittal shrug. “I think he wants to get it posted tomorrow before the party, will you all be coming over for that?”

“Yeah, we planned on it,” Yata smiled over at him. “Saruhiko was eager to get this video done too so if we can get it done today that would be great.”

“Sounds good, a friend of mine is dropping my kid off soon and I think her and Munakata were gonna start decorating, Fushimi can just make himself at home.”

“Thanks for the hospitality,” Yata said happily as he turned back to face his screen.

“Don't mention it,” Mikoto sighed as he leaned in towards the computers, too. “Sink or Swim, easy game, this oughta be good.”

The game was simple in itself, your avatar started at the bottom of the ocean and you had to gather items on your way to the surface, touch too many anchors and you sank, grab onto rafts and you'd surface faster. Even Yata was good at that game, he didn’t see Saruhiko having a problem with it. The moment the game started, Reisi got lucky and had two floats back to back, sending him much closer to the surface whereas Saruhiko had no way to make up for his bad draw. In the end, Reisi was the victor- leaving one last game left.

“If Munakata-san wins this then he's the winner but if Saruhiko wins then they're tied...what happens then?” Yata questioned as he glanced over at his companion.

“They'll hit the randomize button on the list and play whatever game the computer decides, whoever wins that wins the 50,000 points.”

“I see,” Yata nodded as he pursed his lips. _C'mon Saru, you can do this...._

J-Round was a memory game, a set of ten cards would show then mix themselves up on the screen. The players had twenty seconds to make five pairs with as little mistakes as possible, whoever had the least amount of mistakes was the winner, the time- as long as it was under twenty seconds- didn't matter. Through the entire duration of the game, Yata chewed his lip, silently rooting for Saruhiko until both players were finished and their tallies were added up. 

He felt a smile pull on his lips when a banner dropped on Saruhiko's side of the screen, labeling him the winner of that particular round. Though Mikoto had the volume turned down, he could tell that Reisi and Saruhiko were joking about the outcome as they clicked the randomize button, waiting for the screen to stop changing until the computer decided on a game. When it did, Yata's smile grew even wider.

**J-Cube**.

“Munakata's gonna have to step it up here,” Mikoto laughed as he kicked his feet up on the table, “he's gonna be so furious with himself if he loses.”

“Saruhiko will sulk if he's the one who loses,” Yata chuckled though he knew Saruhiko would need some serious coddling if he lost, something told Yata that his boyfriend wouldn't take losing with grace. “This is his game, though. I don't think he'll lose.”

And judging from the look on Saruhiko's face, he didn't look prepared to lose either. Reisi looked confident too the moment the game loaded on the screen, if either of them were worried about losing it didn't show. When the game started, Yata's eyes dodged back and forth between each cube, noticing the intricate patterns on either one and remembering the way Saruhiko made solving them that much easier. In his mind he formulated the turns, watched as Saruhiko executed them with confidence, and saw the counter stop at 6.13 seconds. Reisi's screen froze as the victor was declared.

**Fushimi Saruhiko is the winner! Would you like to cash out?**

“That's the luck of the draw,” Mikoto snickered as he closed his eyes, “Munakata is gonna be passive aggressive today, I can feel it.”

“He hates losing, doesn't he?”

“Doesn't handle it well at all, that's why he's a cop, he likes order and ultimate control over everything. Granted, Fushimi got lucky with the game being J-Cube but still, they're an even match for each other as things stand.”

“I agree, they both did really well,” Yata smiled as he watched the two King players on screen say a few more things before the camera went black. A moment later, they both walked through the door, joining Yata and Mikoto in Reisi's office.

“I can't believe I won,” Saruhiko snorted as he shot Yata a small grin, “I got really lucky at the end.”

“Lucky, maybe, but you are extremely skilled, Fushimi-kun.” Munakata chuckled as he sat down on the corner of his desk, looking at Suoh quizzically before he returned his attention to Saruhiko. “I'd like to challenge you again in the future, but for today, congratulations.”

“Thanks, and anytime you want to give me your points that's fine by me,” Saruhiko smirked though there wasn't any true malice in it. “Misaki, what are we doing for the rest of the day?”

“Mikoto-san and I are going to edit the video and put the graphics in it so I guess we'll just be doing that,” Yata shrugged.

“Anna will be back soon,” Mikoto sighed as he glanced up at Reisi, “watch her and make sure she gets her homework done if she has any.”

“What grade is she in?” Yata asked as he turned his chair around, glancing at the older men that sat beside him.

“She's home schooled by that friend of mine I was telling you about, he still gives her homework, though. She's technically in grade six,” Mikoto answered as he scratched the side of his head. “Stop pouting and get the house ready for tomorrow,” he spat back at Reisi- who looked down at him out of shock.

“Suoh, that's terribly rude of you,” Reisi scolded though there was a slight smile on his face. 

“Shut up, go.” Mikoto waved him off, a smirk on his lips when Reisi hopped off the chair and kissed the top of his head.

“Fushimi-kun, would you like to assist me? Or perhaps I could make you something for lunch while these two get to work?”

“Sound's fine, I guess.” Saruhiko shrugged as looked back at Yata expectantly.

“Go, just relax for a bit...and congrats, I’m proud of you.” Yata smiled as he grabbed Saruhiko's hand, squeezing it for a second before he let his boyfriend follow Reisi out of the room. “How long have you and Munakata-san been together, if you don't mind me asking?”

“About three years,” Mikoto replied as he turned back to the computer and began his work, pulling up a list of graphics to lay over the video while Yata worked on compressing certain scenes. “We've known each other for about eight years, though. How long have you and Fushimi known each other?”

“Not long, actually,” Yata admitted with a slight blush, “just a few months, we started dating a few weeks ago, too.”

“How's that going?”

“Good, except I ruin things by talking too much,” Yata laughed as he continued his work. “Sometimes I have a hard time understanding that he cares about me, I think I gave him a heart attack the other day because I caused a scene only to tell him I was falling in love with him. It was stupid of me.”

“Well has he said that back to you?”

Yata's fingers froze over the keys.

“No, he hasn't...but I mean, he did ask me out so I guess that counts for something, right?”

“I'm sure he'll tell you that when he's ready.”

“Yeah,” Yata mumbled under his breath, “maybe that's why I said it, so I could get him to say it back to me. He just said that it was obvious and he wouldn't be with me if that wasn't the case...and...why am I pouring my heart out to you? I'm being so rude, sorry, Mikoto-san.”

“You're fine, kid,” Mikoto laughed as he sent what he was working on to the spare computer between them. “I'm gonna edit the audio real fast, would you mind making a thumbnail for the video?”

“Sure thing,” Yata answered as he finished what he was working on before getting the tab from the center computer and bringing it on to his own. The audio recording started playing in the background as Mikoto worked on clarifying it and editing out certain parts were mistakes were made, they both chuckled the longer they got into the audio- namely thanks to how often Saruhiko cursed or clicked his tongue out of annoyance.

By the time he and Mikoto were finished, they had spent two and a half hours on their project. The thumbnail Yata created was a green background with Jungle's logo on it in the center, a photo of Reisi was on one side while Saruhiko took up the other. Neon green letters that read **King vs King!** filled in the rest of the space. Once it was all together, Mikoto logged onto Jungle's gaming channel and posted it, sighing out of relief once it was up.

“I'm never doing that again,” he groaned as he looked over at Yata. 

“It's not that bad,” Yata laughed through a cheeky grin. “It looks great and just think of the payout.”

“I know,” Mikoto grunted as he pushed his chair back, “I think Reisi and I are going to film one of these next month, we don't need the money but it's nice to have it.”

“Have you thought about leaving your job?” Yata inquired as he stood up from his seat, stretching out his bones in the process. 

“Nah,” Mikoto answered as he too got to his feet, “I complain about it but I like what I do too much to leave.”

“Fair enough,” Yata mused as he watched Mikoto walk towards the door before he followed after him. In the living room, Saruhiko was sitting on the couch talking to some young girl- who Yata presumed was Anna- while Reisi hung a few decorations around the rather large apartment. “What are you doing, Saru?”

“He's helping me with my homework,” the young girl answered in his place, turning to look at Yata with wide red eyes- which caught him off guard at first, he couldn't help but think that she looked like a doll. 

“Really?” Yata chuckled as he walked around the couch, kneeling in front of his boyfriend. “I'm Yata, you must be Anna, right?”

“Mhm,” the young girl hummed as Saruhiko finally looked up from whatever he was looking over for her- distress clearly written on his face which made Yata laugh. “Mikoto, Tatara said he'd be here tomorrow night, too.”

“Good,” Mikoto mused as he flung himself down on the couch next to Anna, ignoring Reisi's demands for him to help decorate the space. “You have a good day?”

“Yes,” Anna smiled as Saruhiko handed her the homework back.

“You did good, you didn't miss any of them,” Saruhiko clarified as he got to his feet. “Are you ready to go, Misaki?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“We're not running you out, are we?” Reisi laughed as he stepped out of the kitchen and back into view, “you're more than welcome to stay if you'd like.”

“It's okay, we'll be back tomorrow anyway, right, Saru?” Yata elbowed his boyfriend with a calm smile though Saruhiko just clicked his tongue.

“Yeah, we'll be back tomorrow.”

“I see, well have a pleasant evening and a safe trip home,” Reisi said with a grin as he disappeared behind the wall again. 

“Yeah, see ya',” Mikoto said blandly, offering them a small smirk as he looked over his shoulder. Anna waved politely when they gathered their shoes and headed out the door, politely shutting it behind them.

“I'm so proud of you,” Yata purred as he grabbed Saruhiko's arm, laying his head on the side of it. “You kept your cool and the video turned out great.”

“Thanks,” Saruhiko smiled though there seemed to be a hint of sadness behind it, “so, how did things go on your end?”

“Fine, Mikoto-san is actually kinda funny and had some good pointers with a few of the games. How was spending your day with Munakata-san?”

“He's eccentric,” Saruhiko snorted as he grabbed Yata's hand and led him towards the sidewalk across the street, “really, eccentric. He wasn't too bitter about losing, he was actually impressed I think. He still wants me to work with him at the police station, though.”

“Do whatever you think is best,” Yata answered as he squeezed Saruhiko's hand a bit tighter, his eyes traveling behind them as he heard another set of footsteps approach them. The person in question stopped, waved politely then ducked into an alley way the moment Saruhiko stopped in his tracks. 

“What is it?”

“I think...I think someone was following us,” Yata said out of disbelief as he glanced back up at Saruhiko. “It's dark so I didn't get a good look at him but he waved at us then went between those two buildings.”

“I’m gonna call you a cab,” Saruhiko sighed as he slipped his PDA out. “I had a feeling something like this would happen.”

“What's going on, Saru?” Yata mumbled as he stared at his boyfriend out of sheer confusion, watching him pull up an app for a local cab service as he requested a ride. 

“It's nothing importantly, just go home and I'll be there soon.”

“Saruhiko?”

“Please, Misaki.” 

“It wouldn't be unimportant if you're going through all of this trouble just to find out who it was, it could have just been some weirdo. They're gone now, let's just go.” Yata frowned as a cab pulled down the street they were on.

“I'll explain everything as soon as I get back, okay?” Saruhiko sighed as he tucked a piece of hair behind Yata's ear, “don't worry about me, just go home.”

“Saru...you promise...you'll be back?” Yata mumbled, his lips pressed into a thin line. 

“I promise,” Saruhiko said with a small nod of his head, leaning down and planting a chaste kiss on Yata's lips before the cab came to a halt beside them. “It's just something personal I need to deal with, you don't need to worry.”

“My boyfriends throwing me into a cab to go talk to a creepy stalker who's hiding in an alleyway, and there's nothing to worry about?” Yata scoffed as he opened the cab's door, “give me a break. You owe me.”

Saruhiko smiled, waving him into the cab and watching it disappear down the street. 

After instructing the driver where to go, Yata sunk back into the seat of the car, glancing out the back windshield until Saruhiko was out of view. He couldn't help but feel a sour feeling rise in his stomach.

_What's up with him?_

\- -

“You've stooped down to following me around, I see.” Saruhiko spat as he turned down the alley, easily making out the figure that loitered in the shadows.

“Is it so wrong for a father to want to see his son?” Niki laughed as he took a few steps forward, the city light's finally reaching him. “So, my little Monkey, you're famous now, got yourself a cute little boyfriend too, I see.”

“That's none of your business,” Saruhiko growled, feeling his knife sheathe against his skin was the only thinking keeping him rooted to the spot. The urge to flee would have been to great to ignore otherwise. “What do you want?”

“It's your mother, Kisa,” Niki grinned as he took another step forward. “She's been worried sick about you.”

“Very funny,” Saruhiko grunted as he balled his hands into fists. “What do you really want? I'm not coming back.”

“Nothing nothing,” Niki smiled with a wave of his hand, “go, get back to your boyfriend, Monkey. Heaven knows you'll never find another person dumb enough to care about you.”

Saruhiko grit his teeth.

“Seriously, go, my precious little Monkey.” Niki continued to taunt as he took a few long steps backwards, “tell Yata Misaki I said hi.”

“Wait,” Saruhiko called out as he watched Niki dart out of the alleyway, leaving him standing there with a look of shock on his face. He knew Niki didn't want anything, only wanted to taunt him and tease him and remind him of who he was at heart. Despite everything that had happened, he'd never entirely be able to escape his past, of that much he was aware- but it was harder when your past was quite literally chasing after you. 

Clicking his tongue, Saruhiko stalked out of the alleyway, biting back the fear he felt rise in his chest as he plucked a knife out of his harness, holding it in his hands just in case. Without even thinking about where he was going, he found himself standing in front of the house he used to call home- which only seemed to be insult to injury. He stared at the building for a moment, noticing that none of the lights were on before he walked away from it. Walking back towards his apartment where he knew the door would be locked and that the room would be bathed in light and warmth- unlike that cold and sterile house.

Niki could have easily known Yata's name because of his videos and put two and two together, that much didn't worry him, but what unnerved him was the lengths his father was willing to go to be a part of his life. For a moment, Saruhiko wanted to go back and find him, ask him to go to Munakata Reisi's party just so he could have the police captain arrest him or have someone punch Niki in the face because the one and only time Saruhiko had hit him had not been enough. 

By the time Saruhiko made it back to his apartment he had come to three conclusions, one, being famous had it's pitfalls. Two, no matter what happened, that house was no longer the place he belonged- that was by Yata's side. And three, that he would take the job offer from Reisi, if that only meant some sort of peace of mind. The forth was an afterthought, but a bit more brazen than the others- wishing something horrible would happen to Niki. 

The moment he unlocked his apartment door- and locked it again- he felt a smile grow on his face, realizing Yata was in the kitchen making them dinner while the new television they had played on in the background. Without hesitation, he walked over to Yata, wrapping his arms around him as he buried head in the crook of his neck.

“You're back....”

“Yeah,” Saruhiko mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Did...anything happen back there?”

“No,” Saruhiko grunted, dropping the knife he had been holding to the floor. “Nothing happened.”


	12. Update (not a chapter)

Hi everyone, 

Sorry to disappoint but I don't have a new chapter up yet! I want to start of by saying I do NOT plan on abandoning this fic. It WILL get finished. That being said, it will be a few weeks or so before I am able to start writing again. I just began my clinical rotations with school (of which I work 24 hour shifts) and I also work 40 hours a week and go to school 15 hours a week. At the moment I have no free time whatsoever. If I'm home, I'm sleeping!   
That being said, I graduate at the end of this month and take exams the following week so when that time has come and all this chaos has ended I will resume where I left off. 

I apologize about the delay in informing you all. I wore myself out so much that I didn't even have the energy to write this and I've also had a lot of personal matters that have occurred since my last posting. Most recently being a good friend of mine unexpectedly passed away and as a result, I've been in a slump. But once this hurdle is passed and done with, I look forward to continuing this work and all my other in progress works. 

Thank you for your understanding and support and I hope to hear from you all when I return! 

-HOMRA

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/Kudos are appreciated and feed a writer's motivation. ;D


End file.
